Headliners

Men’s tennis earned a share of the 2018 Ivy League crown with Dartmouth, led by Ivy Player of the Year Victor Pham ’19 and the doubles team of Jack Lin ’21 and William Matheson ’19. Columbia then beat Monmouth and Virginia in the first two rounds of the NCAA Championships before bowing to top-seeded Wake Forest in the Sweet Sixteen.

The Lions have won or shared the Ivy title in each of the last five years and 15 times overall, including 13 since Coach Bid Goswami, the longest-tenured coach at Columbia, took over the program in 1982. Columbia was ranked as high as fifth in the nation during the season, before finishing at number 16, which earned it the right to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. And in beating Virginia on May 12, the Lions knocked out the team that had worn the NCAA crown each of the last three seasons.

Baseball swept Yale in the Ivy League Championship Series (ILCS) to earn a share of the conference’s 2018 title along with the Bulldogs, who won the regular season. The Lions earned their fourth NCAA Tournament bid in the last six years but were defeated by the University of Florida and Florida Atlantic University in the double-elimination regional.

Yale had the home-field advantage for the ILCS, but that proved to be no problem for the Lions. Harrisen Egly SEAS’18 pitched seven shutout innings and Ty Wiest ’18 retired all six batters he faced as Columbia blanked Yale 4–0 in the opener of the best-of-3 series on May 22, then the two teams battled for 15 innings the next day before Joe Engel ’19’s sacrifice fly gave the Lions a 2–1 victory in the longest game in Columbia history.

Taylor Trout ’18 was named the Ivy League Player of the Year as voted by the league’s eight head softball coaches, the first Columbia player to receive the honor in the program’s 19-year history. A second baseman, Trout led the Ivy League and set Columbia single-season records in batting average (.455), on-base percentage (.507) and slugging percentage (.797). She also had 56 hits, 15 doubles, nine home runs and 36 RBIs, all of which also led the Ivy League. Her batting average ranks seventh in Ivy League history.

Kyra Tirana Barry ’87 (soccer) and John Vaske ’88 (basketball, track & field) received the Athletics Alumni Awards at the 97th Varsity C Celebration at Roone Arledge Auditorium on May 1. Among the student honors, the Connie S. Maniatty Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete Awards went to Osama Khalifa ’18 (squash) and co-winners Camille Zimmerman ’18 (basketball) and Sarah Hardie ’18 (cross-country, track & field); the William V. Campbell Performer of the Year Awards were presented to Arthur Bosua ’18 (soccer) and Iman Blow ’19 (fencing); and the Rookie of the Year Awards went to Jonathan Suckow ’21 (diving) and Sylvie Binder ’21 (fencing).

Archery won its second consecutive national championship in the compound division at the 2018 U.S. National Outdoor Collegiate Championships on May 19 in Newberry, Fla. The Lions, who edged Michigan State 218–216, were led by All-American Sophia Strachan ’20, who won the silver medal in the individual competition for the second year in a row.

Lindsey Ewertsen ’19 became the first player in Columbia lacrosse history to be selected as the Ivy League Midfielder of the Year. Ewertsen is Columbia’s career leader in caused turnovers and set a program single-season record with 75 draw controls this year, including a single-game record 15 in the Lions’ home finale against Princeton. She recorded 26 goals and 15 assists in helping to lead the Lions to the most conference wins in a season and first berth into the Ivy League Tournament.

Sarah Hardie ’18 won the 1,500m run in a time of 4:21.94 at the 2018 Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the sixth Heps title of her Columbia career. Nell Crosby ’18 (3,000m steeplechase), Brian Zabilski ’19 (10,000m) and Ryan Thomas ’18 (5,000m) also won their races, as did the 4x800 men’s relay team of Jackson Storey ’21, Sam Ritz ’19, Alek Sauer ’19 and Josiah Langstaff ’19.

Lloyd Emanuel ’71 was inducted into the United States Tennis Association Eastern’s Tennis Hall of Fame on April 28 at the historic New York Athletic Club. Emanuel won the Eastern College Athletic Conference doubles championship in 1970 while competing for Columbia and went on to found the Eastern Master Grand Prix Circuit, a sanctioned adult tournament series that was played on grass, clay, hard and indoor surfaces in the New York metropolitan area 1985–2003 and drew hundreds of players annually. He is now the head tennis professional at the Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Conn.