Campus & Community

Three Yale Athletes Honored

Two Yale seniors who represent the ideals of “sportsmanship and Yale tradition” and an athlete who has “shown spirit and courage” during her long recovery from a serious car accident were presented athletic awards by Thomas A. Beckett, director of athletics, at the Yale College Senior Class Day exercises.
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Two Yale seniors who represent the ideals of “sportsmanship and Yale tradition” and an athlete who has “shown spirit and courage” during her long recovery from a serious car accident were presented athletic awards by Thomas A. Beckett, director of athletics, at the Yale College Senior Class Day exercises.

Sarah Seung-Hee Seo of Timothy Dwight College (one of Yale’s 12 residential colleges) received the Nellie Pratt Elliot Award as Yale’s top female athlete. Seo is the first women’s golfer in Ivy League history to earn All-Ivy honors in each of her four years and helped lead the Yale golf team to two Ivy League championships and the school’s first appearance in the NCAA Championships. Seo hails from Lima, Ohio, and majored in history.

Thomas Lewis Hanaguchi Hocker of Pierson College received the William Neely Mallory Award as Yale’s top male athlete. A member of the Yale track and field squad, he was a two-time Ivy champion in the 400-meter hurdles and four-time Ivy League champion in the 4 x 400 meter relay. He earned All-East honors five times. A native of San Jose, California, Hocker majored in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

Amanda D. Walton was presented a special athletic department award for an athlete “who has excelled on the field of play and who has shown spirit and courage in transcending unforeseen challenges.” A former star player on the lacrosse and field hockey teams, Walton would have graduated with the Class of 2002. She has spent the past two years recovering from injuries she sustained in a serious car accident in the spring of 2000. The accident resulted in a brain injury that left her in a coma for a month. She recently began commuting from her home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to serve as volunteer assistant coach to the field hockey team.