Eliot House has taken a commanding lead and appears headed toward a dramatic victory in the Strauss Cup competition for this year. Though final winter totals are not yet in. Eliot appears to have widened the lead it held after the fall season.

Winthrop is the unofficial second place House after the winter season. After the two leaders, the other Houses are "killing each other off" so that accurate predictions cannot be made, Floyd Wilson, director of Intramural Athletics, said.

This winter, Eliot won both A and B league squash, B league basketball and the track meet. They have placed no lower than fourth in any event all year.

"Morale is at a peak over here," Eliot athletic secretary Mark Davis commented last night. "We have mass participation in all sports. It's really sort of peculiar," he said.

Yet Davis says he would not characterize Eliot as a "jock house." Rather, he attributes the House's athletic success to a "highly systematized" method of recruitment. "We've got poets and academics but we get them to go out."

Winthrop placed first in hockey and wrestling and appears to have done respectably in all other sports except squash. "We don't have any squash players," Winthrop athletic secretary Don Donovan said.

General morale in Winthrop appears good; however, the sophomore turnout has been "marginal," according to Donovan.

Quincy tied Eliot for first place in A squash and took second in track, B squash and B basketball. Last year Quincy made a strong bid in the spring to finish second overall behind Winthrop.

Neither Dunster nor Adams occupies an enviable position, both teams having made poor showings this winter. Dunster, for instance, lost all its swim meets and all its basketball games. Adams had only one bright spot in a generally bleak winter, placing first in swimming with an undefeated record.

Both Adams and Dunster are at a disadvantage in House athletics by having a high percentage of women. "There are not a whole lot of real athletic types" in Dunster, secretary Janet Edwards said. And in Adams, "The House lacks a favorable attitude toward House athletics," secretary Dan Bogen said.

Adam's strong performance in swimming came as a surprise to many. Bogen commented, "In swimming. I don't know what happened."

The outlook for the spring is, of course, uncertain but some patterns do emerge. Davis of Eliot said, "We're out to place nothing less than third in any spring sport." Eliot may meet a strong challenge from Quincy, however, which has many of last year's spring stars returning. "I'd expect we'd be really tough," Steve Eyler, Quincy athletic secretary, said.

Athletic secretaries at Adams and Dunster are less optimistic. "I tend to think the trend (of the year so far) will continue," Edwards said.

"For us the most important thing is to field a team and maybe win a respectable number (of contests)," Bogen of Adams said. As for Adams's chances for an overall win, Bogen said, "That's preposterous."

Winthrop expects to do well but takes a realistic outlook: "Eliot would be very tough to catch."