Midway through the football season, the Ivy football race is beginning to build up to its perennial dead heat finish. The results of last Saturday's skirmishings left, to no one's great surprise, a total of four teams in a position to scramble for the title.

While first place right now is the undisputed property of the men from Providence, who now boast a 3-1-1 Ivy record, the second rank has become very crowded territory indeed. Three teams--Harvard, Yale and Princeton--all are staking claim to position two, with identical records of 2-1-1.

Brown acquired the sole rights of possession to the number one slot last Saturday by overrunning Cornell, 28-12, in a bruising victory that shattered the week-old hazy afterglow of Cornell's Harvard upset.

Down by three points in the first period, the Bruins recovered quickly, flexing their ground-game muscle for a total of 350 yards in only 74 carries, while a tough Brown defense held the Big Red to just 215 total yards.

The fact that the team has not seen a home field victory in almost three years made the defeat all the more bitter for the Cornell squad.

Meanwhile in New Haven, Yale's offense ran roughshod over an injuryplagued Columbia defense as the team rolled to an impressive 37-6 victory.

The Eli ground game was so over-powering that quarterback Bob Rizzo was rarely forced to pass. Out of a total of 450 total offensive yards, 390 were delivered by the Yale running backs.

Injuries were the bane of Columbia's game, as three of their top defensive players were forced to watch from the sidelines. In all, a total of 14 Lions players were either missing from the lineup or played despite injuries.

Bruce Malverty was the man to watch in Princeton Saturday, as the reserve fullback ran for two successive touchdowns in the last 12 minutes of the game, giving Colgate a 17-7 edge over Princeton.

Although the loss is irrelevant as far as Princeton's Ivy standing is concerned, it does not augur well for the remainder of the Tigers' schedule, which includes heavies like Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth.

Penn, riding on the surge of last week's Brown upset, stretched its winning streak to two games by toppling Lafayette, 15-14. The victory came on a one-yd, plunge by running back Johnny Mason late in the fourth quarter.

With a month still left to go in the season, and up to four contenders vying for the top slot, the outcome of this year's Ivy football contest remains, as always, up for grabs.