Alfred University Athletics

Rebecca (Graudons) Kramer ’14 was a four-year member of the women’s track & field team, the western and the hunt seat equestrian teams. In 2011, she competed in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in pole vault, finishing 17th with a clearance of 3.39m (11’-1.5”), earning United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-American status. She cleared 3.55m (11’-7.76”) at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference (NYSCTC) Outdoor Championships the same year to win the meet and earned Rookie of the Meet honors.

Graudons continued to secure champion titles in the NYSCTC, winning the indoor and outdoor titles in 2012, indoor title in 2013 and the indoor title in 2014, totaling six state championships in total.

Graudons first broke the school record for indoor pole vault, also in her inaugural collegiate season. She continued to build upon that mark until her final height of 3.58m (11’-9”), set in 2012. Graudons also broke the record for indoor high jump in 2012 with a clearance of 1.63m (5’-4.17”). She also owns the school outdoor pole vault record with a mark of 3.55m (11’-7.76”). In total, she broke the indoor pole vault record six times, the outdoor record four times.

Outside of Alfred University school records, Graudons held facility records at Hamilton College and St. Lawrence University. She tacked on records for the NYSCTC, both for the meet record and overall association record for indoor pole vault in 2012, re-breaking it in 2014.

Graudons garners three All-E8 First Team selections, twice for outdoor, being the back-to-back pole vault champion in 2011 and 2012 and another in 2013 for indoor, making her a three-time Empire 8 Champion in pole vault. She also earned All-E8 Second Team in the 2012 indoor championships and again in the 2014 outdoor meet.

She earned two Empire 8 Weekly Awards, first in indoor track in 2012 and again in indoor during her senior season while also earning NYSCTC Athlete of the Week once. Graudons closed out her athletic career by not only earning the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Merit Medal award but also the Ideal Saxon Award.

In total, she won individual track events 24 times, compiled 49 Top-3 finishes and 87 Top-10 placements.

On the equestrian side, Graudons qualified for Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) regionals her senior year for both western and hunt seat. She won a regional title in intermediate horsemanship in western. She also earned 2013 IHSA National All-Academic Second Team.

On the academic side, she consistently earned Dean’s List with eight semesters’ worth of honors, completed the Leadership Program “ANT” (Alfred’s Newest Talent), was a member of Pi Mu Epsilon the National Honorary Mathematics Society, Omicron Delta Kappa Society the Leadership Honors Society, Phi Beta Kappa, earned USTFCCCA Scholar Athlete three times, was recipient of the W. Varick Nevins III Award for mathematics and the Hal W. Metzger Award in astronomy.

Graudons graduated in 2014 with a double major in mathematics and physics and spent years returning to AU to help coach the pole vaulters.