The International House of Pancakes claims its silver-dollar size pancakes weigh only one-fourth of an ounce each, but there were seven undergraduate couples dragging around yesterday as if they had bellies full of lead.

They were contestants in the annual Shrove Tuesday pancake-eating contest at the International House of Pancakes. 1850 Soldiers' Field Rd., Brighton.

They sat at a long table, two teams from Suffolk University, three teams from Tufts and two teams from Harvard-Radcliffe.

Young things, they were slim and hungry and smiling, because the smart ones don't eat regularly the day before the contest.

At the signal they started champing on a plate of 10 silver dollar-sized pancakes. When the plate was empty each girl or boy would get another plate of 10 cakes.

The play-by-play went this way:

They are digging in. One girl cuts her little cake in half, daintily, pours on maple syrup and swallows the half in one gulp. Ron Bradshaw, manager of the House of Pancakes shakes his head sadly.

"The best way is to pick them up in your hands, squash the air out and chew like hell," Brandshaw says.

You look around to see who has caught on. Here is Entry Number Four in a track sweatsuit, squashing and swallowing. He seizes the entire plate of 10 pancakes, squeezes them into a mighty ball and chews like hell. His name is Carl Rausch, 21, a 164 pound chemistry major from Tufts.

But his teammate is little, dark-haired Claire Rodgers, 19. Claire is a feather weight, weighing in at only 108 pounds. No room down there for a few dozen pancakes. Too bad.

Down at the far end. Team Number Three. Andy Mectoff and Helen Snively, entered as the Radcliffe team. Andy is devouring pancakes like a madman: he has several empty plates in front of him.

Ben Beach and Tracy Cook, make up another Harvard-Radcliffe team. Beach is sports editor of the CRIMSON. He looks, like all CRIMSON staffers, as if he hadn't had a square meal in weeks. Beach doesn't give a damn about the contest, he is there to handle hunger. He devours pancakes frantically. When will Beach get his next square meal?

Up at the far end are Ruth Rootberg and William Parent of Tufts. They do not bother to swallow. They wad up giant balls of pancakes and stuff it into their mouths. Their cheeks, like a chipmunk's swell bigger and bigger.

Mectoff, down at Number Three, is slowing down. He sits back with a groan.

"I thought at first these pancakes were good. After a while they get to you."