Spring sports highlights

Women’s Track

For the fourth consecutive year, the track season for Kate Grace ’11 extended into June. The All-American saved her best season for last, winning the NCAA East Regional with a school-record 800-meter run of 2:03.41. That vaulted her to nationals in Des Moines, Iowa, where she placed fifth. Grace, who overcame a March flu that kept her out of action for a week, credited outgoing coach Mark Young ’68 and a regimen of 1500-meter runs for her record-setting campaign. “He and I have been talking about these possibilities for a long time,” Grace says. “It’s always nice to train with someone who sees your potential.” Grace will compete in the cross country season in the fall while she finishes her degree, and is considering training for next summer’s Olympic trials after that.

Men’s Golf

Heading into the final day of the Ivy League golf championship, Yale trailed Penn by two strokes. Thomas McCarthy ’11, the Yale captain, was the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2010, but a bigger goal was within reach this spring. “We hadn’t played good golf and we were only down two,” McCarthy says. “I told the team that tomorrow could be our last round, and to just give me 100 percent on each shot.”

The five-man team responded with a masterful final-round 288, 14 strokes better than the weekend’s next-best round and good enough to win Yale’s first Ivy championship since 2003. The win sent the Bulldogs to the NCAA regional in Blacksburg, Virginia, where they finished 13th.  

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Editor's Note: A portion of this article was removed in 2025 by request of the person profiled, who was an undergraduate at the time it was written.