Two record-breaking athletes who graduated this year from Yale College were presented with prestigious athletic awards by Thomas A. Beckett, director of athletics, at the Senior Class Day exercises on May 26.
Field hockey and softball star Kellianne Bartlett was awarded the Nellie Pratt Elliot Award, named after the woman who was the director of undergraduate admissions at Yale for 46 years; Daniel Thompson, the Yale baseball captain who broke six school offensive records and was the 1996 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, was given the William Neely Mallory Award, established in memory of an athlete from the Class of 1924. Both awards honor those students who "on the field of playing and in life at Yale best represents the highest ideals of American sportsmanship and Yale tradition." Descriptions of the winning students' accomplishments follows:
In her senior year, Kelli Bartlett was selected as the most valuable player of both the softball and field hockey teams. She finishes her softball career as Yale's all-time leader in hits 136, stolen bases 51, at bats 512 and games played 167. A second-team All-Ivy shortstop this spring, she played every inning of Yale's 42 games and tied for the team lead in runs scored 17, tied for second in hits 32 and was second in doubles 9. As a freshman, she won the team's Most Improved Award and earned All-Ivy honors in three of her four years.
Ms. Bartlett also earned all-league honors three times in field hockey. In addition, last fall she was a first-team Mid-East Regional All-America selection and was invited to play in the North-South All-Star game. As a sophomore, she was voted Yale's Most Valuable Player after leading the team in scoring.
Her accomplishments, however, are not limited to the playing field. With a 3.33 grade point average as a psychology major, she earned Academic All-Ivy honors in both field hockey and softball. In addition, she was an Academic All-American in field hockey and was named a Scholar Athlete by the New England Intercollegiate Softball Coaches Association.
Ms. Bartlett is pursuing a career in athletic administration.
A 1996 third-team Mizuno All-American and a three-time first-team All-Ivy outfielder, Mr. Thompson became the most prolific batter in the 130- year history of Yale baseball and arguably the most productive Ivy League player ever. He is the school record-holder in batting average .393, hits 213, runs batted in 152, doubles 50 and total bases 343. He also broke the hit record established by 1995 captain Dave Feuerstein, who also won the Mallory Award.
The left-handed hitter was a 1995 first team All-Northeast Region selection and was listed among the finalists for the 1996 Rotary Smith Award College Player of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association.
This spring he hit a career-high .410 with a school-record 54 runs batted in over 42 games, and was named the Bulldogs' most valuable player. Mr. Thompson, who won the 1995 Blair Bat Award for the league's highest batting average, earned Ivy League and ECAC Player of the Week honors last month after hitting .529 with 13 RBI, four doubles and three home runs over a five-game period. The right-handed pitcher, also named All-New England and second-team All-ECAC this spring, hurled a complete-game, six- hitter in a 4-3 win over Harvard at Yale Field.
Mr. Thompson, who received his degree in economics, is expected to be taken in the Major League Baseball Draft early next month.