Zeuli And Shon

Today TigerBlog will be talking about Mike Zeuli and Kelly Shon.

Zeuli first.

TigerBlog figured that Harvard's Zach Hodges would win the Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year yesterday at the Waldorf-Astoria. He thought that the offensive award was a toss-up between Yale's Tyler Varga and Dartmouth's Dalyn Williams, with an edge to Williams.

He was wrong there.

Still, was it so far-fetched to think that a quarterback who completed 65% of his passes and had 21 touchdown passes and only three interceptions while running for another 444 yards and six touchdowns couldn't win over a running back who ran for 1,423 yards and 22 touchdowns? Especially when 1) the running back was helped by a quarterback who threw for more yards than any other QB in the league and 2) the quarterback's team finished second and the running back's team finished third?

Hey, it's not a knock on Varga at all. He's a great player. It's just that TigerBlog is really impressed with Williams and would probably have voted for him.

Maybe that's influenced by the fact that Williams has played some of his best games against Princeton.

As for the defensive side of the ball, Hodges won the Bushnell Cup last year, led the league in sacks this year, is Harvard's all-time leader in sacks and plays for a team that went 10-0. TB figured all that would put Hodges over the top.

Instead, Hodges and Zeuli split the votes and shared the award.

That's great for Zeuli, and it's a sign of just how great a season he had. Zeuli led the league in tackles for loss and was second in overall tackles, as well as fifth in sacks.

More than that, he was a force on every play. What he did was play really, really hard on every single snap.

His intensity was obvious at all time. He flew from sideline to sideline and attacked endlessly. He was often unblockable.

His Princeton football resume will include an Ivy title, two bonfires and now the Bushnell Cup. There aren't many holes there, and TB was happy to see him get the acknowledgement from the league coaches - or half of them at least.

Kelly Shon graduated a year ago. This past weekend, she earned her LPGA tour card, which is a huge deal in the world of golf.

Shon becomes the first Princeton golfer and third Ivy League golfer ever to get an LPGA card. Doing so allows her to play in basically any LPGA event in 2015.

To earn her card, she had to go through three stages of qualifying. The top 100 from Stage 1 advanced, and she tied for 98th. She then had to finish in the top 80 in Stage 2 and easily did so, finishing 56th. This past weekend she had to be in the top 20, and she finished ninth after playing five rounds.

Shon was a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year while at Princeton. She also qualified for the NCAA championships her junior year, making her one of two Princeton golfers ever to do so.

TigerBlog has always been a huge fan of the athletic diversity that makes up Princeton's varsity program.

There are 38 teams that compete in wildly different sports, requiring vastly different physical and mental abilities. Zeuli plays football. Shon plays golf. Does it get much different than that?

TB has no idea if Zeuli and Shon have ever met each other or talked to each other.

There's something fascinating, though, about being part of a department with 1,000 athletes who come from such different backgrounds and perspectives and then compete under the singular name "Princeton."

It was a big few days for two of those athletes, one who graduated last year, one who will graduate this year.

TB congratulates both of them.