After a week of preliminaries and several months of semi-serious practice, the House crews will race off the seasons' final round this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. over the mile course in the M.I.T. Basin.

Eliot will probably take first without a great deal of difficulty. But second place is anyone's guess. It should be quite a battle.

The most logical contenders for number two honors are Leverett, Kirkland, and Winthrop. Leverett has beaten both of the other two, but not by very large margins. In fact, the victory over Kirkland was by less than a yard over a three-quarter-mile course in Tuesday's opening-round heat.

The only time Winthrop and Leverett have come up against each other was in a preliminary last Thursday, when the Bunnies defeated Winthrop by about half a length. Since then, however, Winthrop has improved considerably, and in an early heat Tuesday posted a time of 4:00 flat--only a second slower than Leverett's winning time later that afternoon.

None of these crews, however, is likely to beat Eliot. Eliot has had a boat on the river almost every day since well before spring vacation, and the result is a crew that doesn't really belong in the same league as the normal House eights.

Eliot to Use New Shell

To make the other crews' plight even more hopeless, Eliot will be allowed to use its new shell in this afternoon's championship. Paid for by private contributions, the Eliot shell is at least ten years newer than the newest of the other House boats. The advantage could be as much as two or three seconds.

Eliot's second boat is also pretty good. It beat Kirkland in a practice race last week, and if it could get into the finals might repeat the victory and outrow Leverett and Winthrop as well. But the finals are for first crews only.

On the whole, it should be quite a race. But all the drama in the world isn't going to have much effect on the Straus Trophy competition, virtually clinched by Kirkland thanks to spring championships in baseball, tennis, and golf.