Townsend Hops Aboard Yale's Glory Ride

Townsend, no. 42, prepares to set a screen for teammate Mez Mbeng, no. 2, during the Ivy League tournament game against Cornell. Yale beat the Big Red, 69-57, in the first round of the tournament at Columbia.  (YWAA photo)

The Yale men's basketball team experienced a glory ride this spring, a bandwagon of sorts many Yale alums joined once they heard about the miracle shot at Columbia in New York. Yale senior Matt Knowling tossed in a looping six-foot shot at the buzzer to help the Elis win the Ivy League championship, 62-61, in a tight, tense game with Brown in late March.

An important contributor to the team's success was Westchester's own Nick Townsend '26, a rugged power forward, often the first to come off the bench, a regular "sixth man" who played as often as many starters. 

Townsend, a Chappaqua native, is a football offensive guard in appearance, who might have been able to manage playing time on the football team if he had such interest. For the basketball unit, Townsend has been a bruising player under the basket, good enough to "pound boards" and push opponents (legally) around and stake a claim under the basketball. During the season, he averaged 6.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. He scored 14 points in Yale's 80-60 win over Harvard in early March. 

Townsend followed footsteps of his older brother, Matt '15, who also starred at Yale and played in a similar position all four years. Brother Matt grabbed notoriety, too, during his time when he earned a Rhodes Scholarship and went on to Harvard Medical School. Younger brother Nick, wrapping up sophomore year, will likely become a starter next season. In a game against Stony Brook in November, he blazed his foes with 22 points, 11 rebounds. 

The glory ride of spring '24 continued five days later when Coach James Jones' squad trekked across the country to take on the SEC tournament champion, the mighty Auburn Tigers. In the shocker heard all around the basketball world, Yale thwarted Auburn, 78-76, in arguably the biggest upset in the tournament this season. Auburn's front line towered above Townsend, who stands 6' 7". He held his own by scoring 4 points in the nationally televised contest, a game that sports pundits and experts raved about for 48 hours. Yes, fitting for a "shining moment."           

Unfortunately, moments of basketball euphoria dimmed two days later in the second round when San Diego State raced up and down the court for an 85-57 easy win over the Bulldogs. 

On to next season. The Bulldogs will likely be projected to be in the Ivy's top four and reach another Ivy tournament, this time to be held at Brown.

Below, Townsend grabs one of his four rebounds in the Ivy League tournament game against Cornell. (YWAA photo). 

Miles '20 Completes Bronx Internship

The YWAA sponsored Tyler Miles '20 in his participation in a community-service internship this past summer.  

As part of an annual sponsorship by YWAA, Tyler Miles '20 completed an internship this past summer shortly after his graduation from Yale. Each summer YWAA funds a designated Yale student who performs an internship in community service. 

A native of Wilmington, Del., and a member of Yale's Saybrook College, Miles worked this past summer as an intern at the Bronx Defenders MOIA ("Mentorship, Organizing, Investigation and Advocacy"). The organization is an advocacy group involved in public defense work. During the summer, Miles worked on projects in community organizing and in LGBTQ+ defense. He also contributed research for a national LGBTQ+ conference on rights of trans and gender non-confirming prisoners (Lavender Law). Some project activity involved preparing "Know Your Rights" and training materials. 

"I have engaged in social justice and human rights for most of my undergraduate career," he wrote in a summary report to Yale and YWAA about his experience. "Part of the reason why I applied to the (internship) was to engage and work directly with marginalized individuals through the community-organizing team."

Since the internship, he has started a two-year program at Google geared toward social justice and community organizing.

"In a time when Yalies across the world have had to contend with the uncertainty of this pandemic," he wrote, "it has been an incredible blessing to have this opportunity to work with the Bronx Defenders MOIA, but also to have scholarship assistance from the (YWAA)."

He added, "I appreciate not only the financial support, but the mentorship and kindness that the YWAA members have shown me, including (YWAA Director) BK Munguia '75."

Miles had considered going to law school, but has decided to focus on this current social-justice passion for now.

Westchester Players Drafted

Mamaroneck's Kumar Nambiar '19 concluded his Yale career with complete-game shutouts against Princeton and Dartmouth (Yale Athletics photos, Twitter)

Griffin Dey '19 and Kumar Nambiar '19, two Westchester standouts who went on to have successful careers for Yale baseball, were drafted by major league teams in early June. Dey, a Pound Ridge native and graduate of Kennedy Catholic, was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 23rd round. Numbiar, a left-handed pitcher who starred at Mamaroneck High School, was picked by the Oakland A's in the 34th round.

Yale's Scott Politz '19 and Simon Whiteman '19 were also drafted by major league teams, marking the largest number of players drafted from a single team in one season in Yale history. Despite the talent on the team, the Bulldogs finished with a losing record (18-23) after having won Ivy titles the past two years and winning two games in the 2017 NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs concluded 2019 with four straight wins in games against Dartmouth and Princeton.

Nambiar concluded his four-year Yale career with complete-game shutouts against Dartmouth and Princeton and earned first-team All-Ivy status. While at Yale, he won 13 total games and struck out 162 batters (115 in his junior and senior years).

At Mamaroneck High School, Nambiar helped his 2015 squad to a state championship with a 10-0 record on the mound. He was also New York State Player of the Year for the AA classification that year.

In 2019, Dey batted .362 and drove in 44 runs to go along with 11 home runs. In mid-June, he was named to the Northeast All-Region team for the second year in a row.

Dey's 29 career home runs in four years rank second on the all-time Yale list. He finished his career in college with 126 RBI's and a .287 batting average. At Kennedy Catholic, he was rated the top first baseman in the state in his senior year.

The Westchester duo were joined on the team by Rye's Tim DeGraw '19, a mainstay in the outfield at Yale the past four seasons. DeGraw, who also starred in football at Rye High School, batted .285 in his Yale career, stole 53 bases and amassed 185 hits. He was named to the All-Ivy team as a junior.

Griffin Dey '19 of Pound Ridge hit 29 home runs while at Yale the past four seasons, a total that puts him second on the all-time Yale list (Yale Athletics photos)

A Repeat Falls Short

Ted Forst '19 (no. 43 above) starred at Bronxville High School before competing for Yale lacrosse the past four years. (Yale Athletics photos)

After winning the men's NCAA lacrosse championship last year, Yale attempted a repeat in 2019 and knew all season it would be everybody's target:  Beat the champions, who just so happened to have come from the Ivy League.

The Bulldogs scrounged and hustled their way back into the tournament this season even without winning the Ivy championship. (Penn took the Ivy title this season.)  During the tournament, the team unleashed a massive offensive assault, scoring the highest number of goals in tournament history.  It punched out Georgetown, Penn and Penn State before gaining a spot in the nationally televised championship game against Virginia.

The year 2019 might be the year of the Cavalier (this year's men's basketball champion). In men's lacrosse, Virginia gained control of the championship meeting in Philadelphia on Memorial Day and beat the Elis, 13-9. Yale finished the season 17-3, second in the nation.

This year's squad featured Westchester native Ted Forst '19, a regular midfielder who played in 13 games in 2019 and finished his career with six goals scored and five assists. Two of those goals came in a win against Harvard last season. (His brother Brendan played at Harvard lacrosse this season.)

He also received Yale awards for the most improved player and for character and spirit in 2018. At Bronxville High, where he was president of the study body as a senior, he helped his team win the 2014 state championship.

Scarsdale's Nicholas Takes Ivy Golf Title

A month before he graduates from Yale, James Nicholas '19 of Scarsdale won the Ivy League men's golf championship. (Yale Athletics photo)

James Nicholas '19, who at Scarsdale High School excelled in so many sports that he couldn't at first decide what to play when he was admitted to Yale, won the Ivy League men's golf championship in April.  At the tournament in New Jersey, he shot a 215 (two over par) in three rounds.  Yale, as a team, finished third, as Princeton captured the team trophy.

Nicholas, besides being named All-Ivy, was named the league's player of the year for the second straight year and will have a chance to compete in the individual NCAA championship. Yale coach Colin Sheehan '97, in his 11th season, was named Ivy Coach of the Year. 

At Scarsdale High, Nicholas starred in football, golf and hockey. He was good enough in football to be recruited by Yale and even played in his first year on campus. He wasn't recruited to play ice hockey, but has found time to play in club sports in New Haven. 

In golf, he found his place, captained the 2018-19 team and has ranked among the Ivy leaders all four years. When not in New Haven, he has also performed as one of the best golfers at tournaments in Westchester County. 

In high school, he won the New York state golf championship in 2015. He was an All-State honoree as a receiver and defensive back in football for the Red Raiders. In hockey, he scored 100 goals in his junior and senior years, also earning All-State honors. 

Next month he expects to receive his Yale degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 

Scarsdale's Singer Named WebMD Hero

For her research and leadership in autism, Lauren Singer '21 has been selected as a 2017 Health Hero (WebMD photo)

Lauren Singer '21, a first-year student at Yale and resident of Scarsdale, was named by the health-information website WebMD as one of three "Health Heroes" of 2017. She was selected for her work in autism, including projects, programs and research since middle school. 

A graduate of Scarsdale High School, Singer was inspired by her sister Jodie, who has autism.  From her sophomore days in high school, Singer has spent summers assisting in autism research at Mount Sinai in New York City. 

At Yale, she is studying perceptive cognitive science and philosophy. At Scarsdale High School, she was named a 2017 Regeneron Science Talent semifinalist (formerly sponsored by Intel), based on her autism research.  She also received a U.S. Congressional Award Bronze Medal for related research. 

WebMD has presented its Heroes Awards for the past 11 years and honors those who have contributed to improve health care and wellness in communities and who have researched or made notable progress in certain health challenges.  Singer is one of three recipients selected by a team of WebMD editors from candidates around the country.  

WebMD will donate $25,000 to a health-care program selected by Singer. (Singer selected the Child Mind Institute.) She and the other two winners will be celebrated at an event in Jan., 2018, in New York City.  

Chappaqua's Shimer Earns Marshall

David Shimer '18, a Horace Greeley graduate, will study in the U.K., along with Yale Marshall winners Erika Green '18 and Amanda Royka '18 (Yale photos)

David Shimer '18, a 2014 graduate of Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, was awarded a Marshall Scholarship in early December to study at Oxford next year.  He will be joined by two other Yale seniors, Erika Green '18 and Amanda Royka '18.

Next spring, from Yale, Shimer will earn both B.A. and M.A. degrees in history. While at Yale, he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News, reported from Berlin for the New York Times last summer and interned for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign on the debate-preparation and policy teams. He has also been elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Truman Scholarship.

At Greeley, Shimer was class valedictorian, captain of the debate team, and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.  At Oxford, he will study international relations.

Hitman Slenker

In his third season at Yale, Richard Slenker '17 of Pound Ridge is one of the team's leading hitters. (Yale Athletics photo)

Pound Ridge's Richard Slenker '17, the eldest of the quartet of Weschester athletes on this year's Yale baseball team, wound up the regular season as one of the squad's leading batters.  He led the team in hits and doubles and was second in RBI's. His .315 batting average was second on the team. In three seasons, Slenker has 124 hits and a .316 career average.

Despite finishing with a losing record (17-26-1), Yale still has a chance to compete for an Ivy League championship, as other teams finish out the season. Rain forced a 2-2 tie with Navy. The Bulldogs were 11-9 in the league and will wait to see if it will play Princeton in a series for the title.

Rye's Tim McGraw '19 played in all 44 games as a freshman and was second on the team in steals with 10.  The freshman pitching duo of Kumar Nambiar '19 (Mamamaroneck) and Griffin Dey '19 (also from Pound Ridge) each appeared in 11 or more games. 

Hogan Named to Academic All-Ivy

Yale swimming captain Brian Hogan '16 (R) of Scarsdale (with teammate Kei Hyogo '18 and Coach Tim Wise) was named to the winter-sports Academic All-Ivy team. (Yale Athletics).

Scarsdale native Brian Hogan '16, captain of the Yale men's swimming team, was named to the Academic All-Ivy team for Ivy League winter sports.  Hogan joins nine other Yale athletes on the special team.  The Academic honor is bestowed on students who participate and start (or play or compete regularly) on varsity squads and maintain GPA's above 3.0.

In the pools, Hogan was also second-team All-Ivy, an honor he earned after finishing as a runner-up in the 1,000-yard freestyle at the 2016 Ivy championships at Brown in March. He and teammate Kei Hyogo '18 competed in the NCAA Division I championships in Atlanta.  (He finished 28th in the national 500-yard freestyle and 18th in the national 1,650-yard freestyle.)

As a sophomore, Hogan was a first-team All-Ivy selection in the 1,000-yard freestyle and set a Yale record (8:52.88).  He attended Fordham Prep for high school.

Yale Squash Wins National Title

Yale men's squash avoided a confrontation with top team Trinity and beat Rochester for the 2016 national championship Feb. 28 in New Haven after winning the Ivy trophy.  Bronxville native Pierson Broadwater '18 (R) has been an important contributor all season. (Yale Athletics photos)

David and Goliath didn't get the opportunity to compete face-to-face in the national-championship match in men's squash.  In a monumental surprise, Goliath was knocked out in an earlier round. Nonetheless, David beat the team that vanquished Goliath and won the national trophy.

In this scenario, Goliath is Trinity, deemed to be the New York Yankees of college squash, the Hartford-based school that won consecutive national squash championships from 1999-2011 and competed in the finals in 19 straight years.

David is Yale, sort of, as Yale reaching the finals wasn't unexpected.

It helped, too, that the championship rounds of the College Squash Association were held in environs Yale knows well--its own home courts at Brady Squash Center. In 2010 and 2011, Yale lost to Goliath, or Trinity, in the national finals.

In the 2016 championship, after upsetting Trinity, Rochester met a determined Ivy League-winning Yale squad Feb. 28. The Bulldogs nipped Rochester, 5-4, and won squash's Potter Cup for team play, its first national title in 26 years. The team finished 15-2. (Individual championships will be held Mar. 4 at Dartmouth.)

Pierson Broadwater '18, a Bronxville native who had racked up squash honors during high-school years at Horace Mann, was one of nine Yale players playing in championship rounds against Rochester.

In the closing rounds, Broadwater lost his match to his Rochester counterpart in three games, but Kah Wah Cheong '17 followed and clinched the victory for the Bulldogs.

Before arriving at Yale, Broadwater, in 2013, was ranked no. 1 in the country in the Under-19 group and was on the U.S. international junior team that competed in Poland. The son of Robert Broadwater '79, as an eighth-grader, he spent a year training in Egypt, the sport's grooming ground for some of the world's best players.

Before the national meet, Yale, coached by Dave Talbott, defeated Harvard on Valentine's Day to win its first Ivy title in five years.

Class of '20: On the Way to Yale

Admissions officers at Yale must now get down to the difficult business of composing the Class of '20 from over 31,000 applications (Yale photos)

Yale's office of admissions announced in late January a record total in applications (over 31,000) for the Class of '20, a number that includes applications submitted for both early and regular admissions. 

After a slight dip last year, the total increased 4 percent and continues to befuddle admissions experts, who years ago projected that application numbers for selective schools, including the Ivy League, would decline because the admissions bubble would eventually burst and the national pool of applications would decrease.  Other peer schools of Yale are expected to report similar increases. 

From Yale's pool of 31,000-plus, the admissions committee in New Haven must now get down to the difficult business of selecting the 1,900-2,000 students who will be invited to join the new freshman class of 1,350.  This is the time of year when admissions officers, representatives and leaders bury themselves in private offices and conference rooms to make difficult decisions--decisions that admissions observers can't project or figure out, especially when large numbers of applicants have GPA's, SAT scores and extracurricular achievements that reach extreme levels.

But every year, March 31 rolls around, and the committee will have composed a Yale class with accomplishments so impressive and potential so glowing that alumni inevitably respond they couldn't get admitted in current times, if they had to apply again.

The task won't be easier in the years to come, even when Yale increases the freshman-class size to about 1,600 after the construction of the two new residential colleges.  The committee will likely admit more students (over 2,200? 2,400?), but it will continue to confront painful choices and must still reject over 25,000 applicants.

For this year, the Class of  '20 already includes a few hundred who applied and were admitted (and have confirmed they will attend) during the early-admissions process.  As expected, they include high-school seniors with stunning records and with varied backgrounds and interests.  Yale continues to take aggressive steps to ensure the freshman class is diverse, talented, and eager to arrive at Yale to get involved, do research, travel abroad, roam athletic fields, and have a voice about anything of importance.

That Class of  '20 already includes two outstanding Westchester residents, Katharine Berman '20 of Hastings and Lauren Chapey '20 of Mamaroneck.

In January, Berman was named one of the 40 national finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search.  She will travel to Washington, D.C. in March to compete for scholarships, valued at $150,000/winner.

A senior at Hastings High, she has conducted research on a blood disease that contributes to acute myeloid leukemia and will present her project to scientists and researchers in Washington. 

"My research focuses on how this particularly mutation plays a role in a specific pathway that leads to the formation of a type of blood cell," she told the Journal News this month.  "I'm very interested in chemistry and biology, but I also love history and Russian language."

Admitted to Yale early, Berman, like most first-year students at Yale, is not yet sure what she plans to major in when she gets to New Haven.

Chapey from Mamaroneck High is one of the top cross-country runners in New York State and plans to continue running at Yale.  She finished eighth in Class A State championships and fourth in the Section 1 (Westchester and Rockland counties) Class A championship.  She was a Westchester champion with the best time in the 5K (17:56.7) this past fall.

At Yale, she will join fellow Mamaroneck athlete Kumar Nambiar '19, who led Mamaroneck to a State baseball championship last spring and who will play for Yale this spring.  Off the course, she is president of her senior class, founder of a cooking club, business editor of the school newspaper, and a film-maker. 

"When I took my official visits, academically, I knew I was looking at the Ivy Leagues," she told the Journal News in November. "It was pretty even across the board. The difference was getting a sense of the team.  I was just so comfortable at Yale."

Making Their Marks in Yale Soccer

Westchester's Sofia Griff '19 (top, no. 5)) and Fallon Sheridan '19 (bottom, no. 11), part of a notable, talented recruiting class, have made big contributions for the Yale women's soccer team this fall (Yale Athletics, Steve Musco photos)

Sofia Griff  '19 and Fallon Sheridan '19 have been soccer teammates, off and on, for a long time. Both grew up in Westchester and lived in neighboring towns. Both played recreational soccer together, starting at age 5. One (Sheridan) went to Ardsley High School. The other (Griff) graduated from nearby Hastings High School in Hastings-on-Hudson, which straddles the Hudson River, but also abuts nearby Ardsley.

Both decided to attend Yale and play on the women's soccer team, entering with six other freshmen in what one national soccer website said was the 12th best recruiting class in the nation.

And in the first year, both have made their marks, although the team has struggled this fall season with a losing record (4-8-2).  Griff has started all 14 games for Yale as midfielder.  Sheridan was a starter in 9 as a defender.  Despite the team's stumbles, Yale coach Rudy Meridith can't help but be confident about the years ahead.  His freshmen corps of eight, including Sheridan and Griff, has scored 13 of Yale's 16 goals this season.

Griff, second on the team in scoring, has contributed 4 goals and 4 assists, including the only goal in Yale's 1-0 win over Villanova earlier this season. (She scored those 4 goals in the first six games.) Sheridan has had 2 assists and has played in every game.  (Michelle Alozie '19, a California native and also a freshman, is the team's leading scorer with 6 goals.)

During high school, Griff and Sheridan took circuitous routes to get to Yale--typical of those with soccer talent pursuing Division I careers in college.  U.S. players of high-school age identified early to have outstanding talent and potential often play for U.S. development and Olympic programs, where competition is greater and where college coaches can observe them closely.

Through her junior season, Sheridan dominated girls soccer at Ardsley, where she was Player of the Year at the school twice, selected three times as All-Section in Westchester, and led her team to league championships. In her senior year, Sheridan decided to play for the New York Rush, a National Premier League team. And in doing so, she joined her childhood friend Griff, who spent all her high-school years playing for the New York Rush and playing in an Olympic development program.

Griff also played sessions for the U.S. Soccer Training Center, where she had an opportunity to play in matches in Costa Rica and Germany. In one rating, she was ranked no. 5 in the New York region.

Their shared interests, common goals and friendship have lasted for years.  In high school, both were involved in Westchester community activities involving the homeless and to food pantries.  Both, in fact, together attended Yale Westchester's reception for admitted students in April. And in this sesaon's Yale team photo, both are kneeling side by side on the front row, a vivid Westchester presence in Yale athletics.

Losses against Ivy League foes (Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, and Penn last week) have been tough. The team, nonetheless, nipped Dartmouth, 1-0, on an Alozie goal assisted by Griff.  Griff, Sheridan and teammates end the season with games against Columbia and Brown, contests they can and hope to win.

DeGraw: Baseball It Will Be

Rye's Tim DeGraw '19, a star on the football field, opted for baseball and will join other Westchester-area players on the Yale team next spring (LoHud photos)

Last fall, Tim DeGraw '19 wound up a storybook career for the Rye High School Garnets on the football field, a career that local coaches and prep watchers will whisper about for a long time.

For two straight seasons, he recorded over 1,000 yards receiving, setting records for his high school and in Westchester's Section 1. He was the reliable recipient of sharp arcs of passes from his heralded quarterback Andrew Livingston. Livingston heads to Brown this fall and will attempt to break records in Providence in the way both he and DeGraw did so in Westchester.

The passing tandem led Rye to a 9-2 record, good enough for a Class A, Section 1 championship. (Livingston passed for over 5,500 yards during his time as Rye's quarterback. DeGraw was responsible for more than half the yardage.)

DeGraw opted for Yale, but not to play football. He will play baseball for Yale next spring, joining other Westchester-area players on the team, including Mamaroneck's Kumar Nambiar '19 and Pound Ridge's Richard Slenker '17.  James Nicholas '19, like DeGraw, was a versatile athlete, a star at Scarsdale, excelling in football, ice hockey, and golf.  Like DeGraw, he had decisions to make and chose football and golf.

For DeGraw, check the numbers in both football and baseball. Check team records and game stories, too. Check YouTube highlights that show his blazing speed up and down sidelines and along base paths.

In football last year, DeGraw's team fell short in the quarterfinals of the New York state championship, losing to Cornwall, 21-17,  in the last minute as Rye was driving down the field.  In baseball, he batted .443 in his career and set career Rye records for hits (135), runs (123), and stolen bases (117). He even pitched a no-hitter against rival Harrison this past spring.  He was an All-State selection on both sports.

So as he and 1,350 other Yale freshmen swarm onto Old Campus in New Haven in the days to come, baseball it will be for DeGraw.  (Rye classmate Alexandros Koutsogeorgas '19 will also be a Yale classmate and will join the Elis' fencing team.) In his own household, he was likely pulled into baseball's direction because his brother Matt and father Eric played baseball at Stanford.  (His mother was a gymnast at Stanford.)

DeGraw resisted the strong family pull toward Palo Alto.  He followed his family's baseball tracks, but, for the next four years, chose Yale.

Next Stop for Nambiar: Yale Baseball

Kumar Nambiar '19, one of the best pitchers in the state, is headed to Yale after a state championship. (LoHud photos)

Kumar Nambiar '19 just finished a dream season. Perhaps it was a dream year, one that included admission to Yale and a championship. He was the premier pitcher, a left-hander ace, on the Mamaroneck High School that won the New York state Class AA baseball championship in mid-June, helping to revive the school's former glory in the region as a baseball powerhouse. In this dream season, he amassed awards (and will likely gather a few more in the weeks to come) and was highly recruited. Throughout the season, his coach used him adroitly, scheduling him in a way to ensure he would pitch in crucial games.

Next stop, Yale.  Nambiar joins the Class of '19 this fall and the Eli squad next spring.  Yale was not a surprise choice for him. He committed a year ago, opting for Yale over Penn. He then set out this spring to prove Yale coaches he could be a formidable hurler in the Ivy League, conjuring memories of Ron Darling '82, when Darling went from being a Yale pitching legend to a starter for the 1980's Mets, the Mets that won the 1986 World Series.

Nambiar is a strong favorite to be named the Journal News' top baseball player in the Westchester-Rockland region.  If he is so named, he would become the second Yale pre-frosh to win the award in three seasons.  Richard Slenker '17 of Fox Lane High School won the award in 2013 and is now a starting infielder for the Bulldogs, batting his way onto the All-Ivy team his first year.

Nambiar's numbers and feats at Mamaroneck are astounding. His 2015 ERA was under 1.00 (0.99). In the run-up to the state championship, he shut out Horseheads, 5-0, in a regional game. He followed that with a 4-2 win over Connetquot in the state semifinals, his final start for Mamaroneck. For the year, he finished 10-0. In two seasons, his ERA computed to 0.78. Breath-taking statistics.

Mamaroneck pummeled team after team in Westchester and then seized games in the regionals, the state semifinals, and the finals.  It finished with a 24-4 record after defeating Saratoga Springs, 4-2, in Binghamton in the championship game. The Tigers won back-to-back state titles in 2008-09.

Nambiar, who won an award as Con Edison's Athlete of the Week in April, likes to attribute his talents to his mother.  He says as a child, his mother built a mound in their backyard and taught him the mechanics of pitching. Since then, not only has he excelled on the mound, but he has studied pitching mechanics (motion, form, force, and energy) in the way that would impress a Yale physics department. His studies in pitching were an independent research project in school.

At the annual Yale admitted-students reception in April, a game against White Plains High School kept him from attending. But his parents, including his mother who was his first pitching instructor, substituted for him.

Nambiar will join a Yale team that struggled for much of the year, although it managed to split four games with Harvard late in the season.  It finished 15-23, but won five of its last seven games. Pound Ridge's Slenker batted 0.290 with 18 RBI's as the team's starting third-baseman.

A State Title for Yale-Bound Nicholas

Before graduating from Scarsdale High School, James Nicholas '19 won a state golf championship after playing hockey and football during the school term. (LoHud photos)

James Nicholas '19, one might argue, is Westchester's best all-around prep athlete this year.  It would be hard to refute the claim.  For Scarsdale High School, he has starred in ice hockey, golf, and football. And he could have elected to play any of the three in college.

He grabbed yet another honor June 1 by winning the New York State championship in golf (for public high schools).  He shot an even-par 71 in the tournament's second round on the golf course at Cornell to win by one stroke and become Westchester's first state champion in 11 years. He will compete in the New York Federation championship, which includes Long Island, June 7.

In football, a storied season was interrupted by injury, but he still proved to Yale he could play in the Ivy League. At 5-11, 185 pounds, he returned kicks, caught passes and played defensive back for Scarsdale and was an All-State honoree despite the injury. He led the Red Raiders in rushing and receiving.

In ice hockey, he scored 100 goals in the past two seasons and earned All-State selection three times.

Nicholas was recruited by Yale football coaches, who preferred he concentrate on one sport.  He wanted to play two of the three and convinced a reluctant Yale head coach Tony Reno to allow him to play football and golf. Ice hockey's season starts during the second half of fall football and winds up as golfers start, so he eliminated that as a possibility in college.

Nicholas had leverage.  He could choose the college that was willing to be flexible about his sport choices. Yale agreed, and he will join the Elis' football and golf teams. (He announced in January he would attend Yale.)

In football, he was recruited as an "athlete," a player who could play one or more positions or a player who because of multiple talents doesn't yet have to be pigeon-holed into a slot on the first day. For now, Yale has penciled him as a defensive back.

In golf, he will join a Yale squad that finished fifth in the Ivy League this spring.

Nicholas' father, Stephen, played football at Harvard.  In academics, he has told Yale he is interested in orthopedic surgery (like his father).  He will be the only Westchester football player on the Yale team during the 2015 season.

ADDENDUM (Sept. 14)

The National Football Foundation announced in early September that Nicholas is one of 40 finalists from around the country for its annual High School Scholar-Athlete awards for excellence in athletics, academics and community service.  The Foundation will name five of the 40 finalists as award-winners, who will be honored in New York in December. Nicholas was selected from a pool of 3,500 athletes.

Chappaqua's Townsend Wins Rhodes

Matt Townsend '15 (above) had plans to attend medical school after Yale and after his basketball career. But he'll make a first stop in Oxford to study medical anthropology. (Yale Athletics photos)

YALE ATHLETICS

Matt Townsend '15, a Chappaqua resident who starred at Horace Greeley High School in basketball and was valedictorian in his class there, has won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University next year, according to Yale and the Rhodes Trust.

At Yale, Townsend is a senior forward on the basketball team and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  He is majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. He has averaged 6 points/game and 4 rebounds/game, playing as a starter most of the time, in his sophmore and junior seasons, combined.
Townsend's weekend of Nov. 21-23 was hectic, busy, anxiety-filled. He missed two Yale games because he was interviewing in finalist rounds in New York when the team was on the road.  Once interviews were done and he learned he had won the scholarship, he joined the team in Ohio Nov. 23 where the Elis were about to play Kent State in a tournament.  With the Rhodes now secured, Townsend celebrated by leading the team to a 66-59 victory, scoring 12 points.

Yale has started this season at 4-1. It finished last year at 19-14, as Townsend won the Derby Award for academics for the third year in a row.  He was also selected to the Academic All-Ivy team (winter sports) and the Capital One Academic All-America Team.

The team plays NCAA defending champion UConn Dec. 5 in Storrs, Ct.  It won't start Ivy League competition until after the holidays (Jan. 17 at Brown).

At Horace Greeley, Townsend averaged 29 points/game during the 2010-11 season and played with the Graves brothers (Teddy and Earl, III), the sons of Earl Graves, Jr. '84, who many argue is one of Yale's best basketball players ever and one of the best to have played at Scarsdale High School.

At Oxford, Townsend will study medical anthropology and defer attending medical school (his original plans since going to Yale).  Three other students and graduate of Yale also earned Rhodes Scholarships:  Jordan Konell '15, Jane Darby Menton '15, and Gabriel Zucker '12. With four, Yale led the nation in Rhodes Scholarships this fall. Last year, Isabel Beshar '14 of Rye won the scholarship.

A Close Call at Debate Night

College debaters squared off at Hackley School in Tarrytown, Nov. 7. Janelle Tam from Princeton provides supporting arguments (top L). Brown's Diego Arene-Morley makes his points (top R). Tony Nguyen '16 goes first for Yale (bottom R).  Yale's Zachary Young '17 (bottom L) has a chance at the podium, too.

The 200 or so in the audience expected the debate competition to be close. And it was close. YWAA president Tim Mattison '73 described it best when he said for the judges, it would be like grading on a curve.  The best team would get an A-plus, and the runners-up would deserve an A or A-minus.  With debaters presenting sound arguments with heart-felt conviction (and with little time to prepare for the topic), choosing a winner was almost like choosing a winning ticket from a hat.

Yale won the debate this year in the 18th annual Westchester Debate Competition Nov. 7 at Hackley School in Tarrytown, barely beating teams from Brown and Princeton. Debate Night, 2014, included the three college teams, followed by six Westchester high-school teams.  Prizes for high-school teams are funded by YWAA's William Nightingale '53 Debate Fund.

Nightingale himself and Susan Kaminsky '86, co-Chairs of the Debate from the Yale side, kicked off the competition, thanking Hackley for being the host site this year, for providing sufficient heat on a windy, chilly Friday night, and for scrambling to fetch more seats to accommodate a larger-than-expected crowd. Parents, students, and local alumni from Yale, Princeton, and Brown huddled into the hall to listen to political wisdom from a current Ivy League generation.

Richard Bradley '86, editor-in-chief at Worth magazine, was moderator for the event. (His biggest challenge, he'd admit, was to make sure the young appointed gong-bangers (to signal to debaters to wind up) didn't bang the gong too loudly.) The evening's judges included two local judges from Greenburgh Town Court, Judge Walter Rivera and Judge Delores Scott Brathwaite, and Joseph Modica from Brown. That Judge Brathwaite's husband is a Yale alumnus wouldn't have impact on her decisions, she promised.

The college topic was a challenge, as it would be even for the Washington politicians who must confront the issue everyday:  Should the U.S. lead military intervention to thwart the aggressions of the Islamic State (ISIS)?  Debaters from Yale, Brown and Princeton would decide, plan and plot the U.S.'s overall strategy--in just one evening.

The Yale team presented arguments discouraging intervention in any meaningful way.  Tony Nguyen '16 from Chandler, Ariz., explained there are three defined reasons for when military intervention is necessary, and this was not one of them.  Zachary Young '17 from Cincinnati, rising to the podium as if he were a Speaker of the House, followed Nguyen with supplementary reasons. They argued that other nations or groups in the region with greater stakes should take lead roles. 

The Princeton team (sophomores Nathan Raab of Rye and Janelle Tam of Waterloo, Ontario) argued for limited military intervention, and Diego Arene-Morley, a junior at Brown from Washington, D.C., reasoned there are times when intervention is necessary, and this could be one of those times.

Back and forth, the teams went. They rebutted, they argued, and they sermonized.  They mulled over the logic of their foes and responded with facts, trends, and bits of history. Sometimes they politely rebuffed requests from their opponents to interject or intervene.  Arene-Morley of Brown concluded that conflicts are usually about people or ideologies, and this is about people.

Perhaps unlike Washington, when all presentations were done, members from all three teams, amiable and respectful, smiled and congratulated each other.

In the end, the judges had to make a call.  They conferred and explained their criteria.  Judge Brathwaite said they didn't focus on the sides the teams took. They focused on presentation, poise, speech, and grasp of the topic. 

Yale was pronounced the 2014 winner, seizing the crown from Brown, which won last year in Rye Brook. Arene-Morley was also a member of that Brown team. (Yale, Harvard and Brown competed in the 2013 debate. Princeton replaced Harvard on the bill this year.)  At Yale, Nguyen is an ethics, politics and economics major.  Young is studying economics.

High-school debaters took the stage afterward and followed the leads of their college mentors.  College teams had coached the high-school students during intermission, before they debated. Teams featured students from Briarcliff High School, Hackley School, Harrison High School, Mamaroneck High School, the Master's School (Dobbs Ferry), and Yonkers (Lincoln High School and Palisades Prep).

They had to tackle tough topics, too, and marched one by one to the podium to present their cases loud enough to keep the audience alert, passionate enough to keep the crowd amused. It was all business for the high schools, as well. Two teams stepped to the front, sporting business suits and attache' cases.

High-school topics included arguing for or against reducing the voting age to 16, arguing for or against requesting criminal background information in job applications ("dropping the box," the debaters called it), and arguing for or against penalties for certain types of hate speech.  

The judges pronounced host-school Hackley the high-school winner, with Briarcliff Manor and Mamaroneck as runners-up. Give them credit. The judges, sitting on the front row and taking notes, were just as attuned to the student arguments as they were in listening to lawyer presentations in real cases in town court. After the competition, judges spoke privately to students, advising them on what works (and what doesn't) and patting them all on the backs for jobs well done. 

The event's organizers, besides Kaminsky and Nightingale, also included Modica and Amanda Nash from the Brown alumni group in Westchester, Martin Sklar from Princeton-Westchester and Tracy Williams '79 from YWAA.

Brown's Diego Arene-Morley makes his point (top R), Princeton and Rye's Nathan Raab (bottom R) follows with arguments. Yale's Tony Nguyen '16 takes his turn (middle L). (YWAA photos)

YWAA board members and Debate co-Chairs Susan Kaminsky '86 and Bill Nightingale '53 kick off the evening (R).  Richard Bradley '86 (top L) acted as debate moderator.

Debate co-Chairs from the alumni groups of Princeton, Yale and Brown congratulate the winning teams from Yale and Hackley (top).  The event's judges (middle L) were Judge Walter Rivera, Judge Delores Scott Brathwaite, and Joseph Modica.

Brown's Arene-Morley makes his final points (top L).  Josh Gottlieb and Rob Karp (top R) participated from Briarcliff High School. Noah Seltzer and Harry Federspiel from Mamaroneck High School speak with Judge Brathwaite after the competition (bottom R).

High-school debaters followed the college teams.  Owantae Ameiforyi (top) from Palisades Prep presents her case. Yomairis Montes from Lincoln High School and Hailey Payea from the Master's School (middle) argue their sides.  Judge Rivera speaks with debaters from Harrison and Briarcliff after the competition (bottom R).

Judge Delores Brathwaite explains how the judges reached their decisions (top L). Zachary Young '17 from Yale states his case (top R). Moderator Richard Bradley '86 goes over the debate rules (bottom L).

High-school and college debaters gather at the end of the evening (top). The judges listen closely to debate points from high-school students (bottom R).

Autumn Ritual: Rizzo and Cross-Country

(Yale Athletics Photos)

Bronxville's Meredith Rizzo '17 and the Yale women's cross-country team launched the fall season in mid-September in a 5K race against rivals Harvard and Princeton in New Haven.  Yale placed second (to Harvard) in the competition, and Rizzo (above, from the meet) followed up her successful freshman year with a time of 18:43.  Last year, Rizzo had outstanding times and finishes in the Heptagonal Championship, the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational and the Iona Meet of Champions.  At Bronxville High School, Rizzo was a four-time state champion. The team will compete in as many as eight more races through the end of November.

A Rewarding Westchester Summer

(YWAA photos)

Natalie Warren '17 (above, L), YWAA's Community Service Intern for 2014, spent the summer working as a counselor at Camp Success for Family Services of Westchester.  Camp Success, a "camp on wheels," permits children with emotional challenges to travel to various activities across Westchester and beyond.

Warren had an opportunity, also, to volunteer for a week at the Sustainable Garden Project on the grounds of Scarsdale High School. The Scarsdale Garden, a Yale Day of Service site in recent years, is directed by Maggie Favretti '85 (above, R).  It produces over 1,000 pounds of food each year, much of which is distributed to food pantries in the Westchester area.


After her stints as an intern and as a Scarsdale volunteer, Warren, a Berea, KY, native, heads back to New Haven and Morse College for her sophomore year in a few weeks.

Favretti, too, has had a memorable summer, which will become even more special in the next two weeks. Her leadership of the Garden Project has attracted White House attention.  On Aug. 12, she will travel to Washington and the White House, where she will receive an Honorable Mention for the Presidential Innovation in Environmental Education award.

Besides food for pantries, the Garden Project has promoted the importance of garden communities throughout the area.  Favretti helped lead a conference in building gardening communities in Scarsdale in April; over 100 attended the day-long sessions on gardening techniques, collaborative problem-solving, and food and nutrition challenges.

YWAA Selects Summer Intern

Natalie Warren '17 will intern at Camp Success

Yale student Natalie Warren '17 has been selected as YWAA's Community Service Fellow for 2014.  A native of Berea, KY, she will be a summer-intern counselor at Camp Success at Family Services of Westchester.  She starts the program during the week of June 23.

Each summer, YWAA selects a Yale student for a community-service internship in Westchester, provides funding for compensation and arranges for housing.

Camp Success is a "camp on wheels," serving children with emotional challenges.  Campers travel to various activities during the week, including bowling, skating, zoos, and museums.  On Fridays, counselors, including Warren, will meet to review campers' progress.

Warren graduated with high honors from Berea Community High School, where she was managing editor of the school newspaper and president of the Environmental Club. She was also president of her Girl Scout troop and worked as a counselor at a music, arts, drama and dance camp in Kentucky.

At Yale, Warren has worked as a research assistant at the Yale Social Robotics Lab and is a staff writer for the Yale Record, the humor publication. She resides in Morse College.

YWAA board member Betsy Litt '72 helps to arrange and coordinate YWAA internships.  Barry Abramson '77 and YWAA Vice President BK Munguia '75 will host Warren this summer.