Howie Houston will be Harvard's only representative in the semi-finals of the Eastern intercollegiate wrestling championships at Cornell this afternoon. If he wins, he will advance to the finals tonight.

Houston decisioned Brown's John Chernak, 9 to 0, in the preliminaries yesterday afternoon and Lawrence MacEly, of Franklin and Marshall, 9 to 3, the quarter-finals last night. He is assured of at least a fourth place in the heavyweight class.

Buddy King and Captain Bob Claflin survived the preliminaries but both were beaten in the quarter-finals. Barton Downes, of Navy, stopped King with half-nelson and inside crotch at 5:25 and Jim Jackson, Lehigh, threw Claflin in a figure four and bar arm at 7:26.

Five Down

In the preliminaries, Peter Munyan (Penn) pinned Joe Kozol at 5:47 with a forearm and reverse nelson; Cornell Captain Joe Calby pinned Dave Coombs with a half-nelson and bar arm at 1:51; Settani (Syracuse), decisioned Bob Aboud, 11-2; Eris Erikson (Lehigh) Rod Skinner with a cradle at Erikson is a two-time runnerup the 155-pound class. At 165, Fred (Cornell) decisioned Tom , 6 to 4.

Penn State leads in team scoring with eight points, while defending champion Lehigh, F & M, and Syracuse are tied for second with seven each.