O’NEILLS BREAK TRADITION, SHARE ELLIOT AWARD
Running Stars Selected Yale’s Top Female Athletes

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Kate and Laura O’Neill, Yale’s twin sister cross country and track standouts who combined for 11 All-America honors, have become the first athletes to share the Nellie Pratt Elliot Award, the most prestigious athletic award given to a senior female at Yale. The award was presented at the Class Day exercises on May 25.
The award goes to the senior woman whose excellence in the field of athletics and in her life at Yale best represents the ideals of sportsmanship and Yale tradition. It is awarded in memory of Nellie Pratt Elliot, who was an assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Yale for 46 years.
This is the first time a male or female has ever shared an athletic Class Day Award, but there has been no way to separate two of Yale’s most decorated runners ever. It was never more evident than the 2003 Heptagonal Championships hosted by Yale. Kate, who scored 28 points, and Laura (26) were named co-winners of the Most Valuable Performer Award.
Laura, who has five All-America honors, eight first team All-Ivy and eight second team All-Ivy selections, has accomplished more for Yale in track and field and cross-country than any woman. She owns the indoor and outdoor 5,000-meter records as well as the top time in the 10,000 (outdoors). She has scored more points at the league and the NCAA championships than any previous Yale runner.

With finishes of 33rd, 26th, and 13th at three successive NCAA Cross Country Championships, Laura graduates from Yale as the only three-time All-American and three-time first-team All-Ivy performer in the history of the cross country program. She has won five individual Heptagonal Championships in track and field and has scored more career points in Heptagonal competition than any Yale woman ever. She also has two individual ECAC championships to her credit.

Laura, a two-time track All-American with a 3.7 GPA in history, also finished third in the 10,000 meter run at the NCAA Championships in 2002 (at the time, the highest place ever for a Yale woman), and fifth at the Indoor NCAA Championships at 5,000 meters. She won five individual league championships and finished second to her sister on six other occasions. Alone, Laura and Kate placed Yale among the top 25 (of approximately 300) schools at the last two NCAA Track and Field Championships.

The other side of the powerful twin combination owns six All-America honors, 10 individual Ivy titles and six Yale records. Kate is a three-time cross country All-American who won the Ivy title her last two years. She was the 2002 NCAA Northeast District Runner of the Year for winning the NCAA Regional qualifying meet. Kate went on to earn the best finish ever for an Ivy woman at the NCAA Championships with a second-place run. She was 33rd as a sophomore and 11th as a junior.

Kate, who has rewritten the Yale record books, has won eight Heptagonal track championships and a pair of ECAC titles while earning three All-America honors. There is still time left for more, but she currently owns the school records in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 and the outdoor 5,000 and 10,000. She also anchored the last leg of Yale’s NCAA qualifying distance medley relay team that broke the school record in 2003.

Kate, with a 3.6 GPA in history, qualified for two individual events and one relay at the 2003 indoor NCAAs, while no other Ivy school had a female athlete competing.