As House intramural winter athletics draw to a close, Lowell House holds a commanding first place lead in the Straus Cup competition.

In the fall, Lowell compiled a total of 316 points, with Eliot House trailing with 275 and Winthrop with 230. In the three winter sports events whose seasons have been completed--fencing, swimming and wrestling--Lowell holds a slender lead of three points over Winthrop, 105-102.

In the individual tournaments, Dunster smashed runnerup Kirkland in fencing, 18-9. For Dunster, Jas Geisz captured first place in foil and seconds in both epee and sabre, while Arnold Aguilera took second place in foil. For Kirkland, Jim Gammill placed fifth in foil, Jim Nemiah first in epee and Richard Harper fourth in sabre.

In the swimming meet finals, Winthrop edged second-place Adams 64.5-61. In the team races, Winthrop won the 200-yd. medley relay with a time of 1:49.1 while Adams captured the 200-yd. freestyle relay posting a 1:38.2 time. In the individual races, Howard Burns of Quincy House was the only dual winner, taking both the 100-yd. individual medley and the 100-yd. freestyle.

In the wrestling tournament, Winthrop House crushed all of its opponents by taking four individual weight classes and totaling 31 points. Kirkland and Quincy were tied for a distant second with 14 points apiece.

The other three intramural sports are still in the playoffs. In hockey, Winthrop remains unbeaten in seven contests while both Eliot and Kirkland are tied for the number two spot with five wins against two losses.

The squash tournament continues to be a close struggle with Dunster in first place with 41 points and Eliot and Lowell trailing close behind with 40 and 36 points respectively.

In basketball, Eliot cemented itself into first place on Thursday night by avenging its earlier loss to Lowell with an awesome fast-breaking offense which accounted for a 28 point victory. Eliot bypassed its chance to play Yale's intramural champs and Lowell went instead, losing a close game, 48-43, Saturday afternoon.

As the scoring now stands for the Straus Cup, Lowell has amassed 421 points to take a clear lead over Winthrop with 332 points and Eliot with 306 points.