Lily Dorstewitz, Staff Photographer

For the first time, one of the new colleges is in the lead in the Intramural sports competition that began back in the fall semester. 

Each year, Yale’s 14 residential colleges face off against one another in intramural sports competitions, the winner of which is awarded the coveted Tyng Cup. The Colleges have competed since the start of the fall semester in sports such as basketball, ping pong and dodgeball, and now as the intramural playoffs begin, Pauli Murray College is at the top of the rankings.

“The Tyng cup, like certain other things, has felt like this thing where certain older colleges have traditions of participating, but we’re here now,” said Tina Lu, head of Pauli Murray College. “We’re no longer one of the new colleges, we’re just the best college.”

Heading into this week’s playoff games of volleyball, basketball and dodgeball, Pauli Murray is currently in first place with 413.5 points, Timothy Dwight is in second with 355 and Saybrook is running closely behind with 340. TD, Saybrook and Grace Hopper have been the only Residential Colleges to take home the Tyng Cup in the last five years.

Now, the Murray ‘LiMurs’ are in the lead for the first time ever, and Lu told the News that “when we win, there is going to be a victory party of unprecedented proportions.”

IM secretaries in each of the 14 residential colleges are responsible for attendance at the matches and the overall organization of the competitions. Grayson Phillips ’25, the Pauli Murray IM secretary and head secretary for all IMs — or, as he likes to be called, “intramural extraordinaire,” — is mainly in charge of scheduling, managing the rules and making sure everyone plays fair, he told the News. 

Phillips, whose mother was secretary of IMs for Timothy Dwight when she attended Yale, claims “Murray supremacy” over the other colleges, he said, but also enjoys seeing people from all colleges put in the effort to show up, “whether that’s to play volleyball or stand on the sidelines and cheer and hang out with their friends,” he said.

He attributes Murray’s success this year to his support system of team captains for each sport and the focus participants in Murray’s IMs have on having fun first, rather than being competitive. “Results just come with that,” he said. 

Current runner-up Timothy Dwight boasts high IM participation, said TD IM Co-Secretary Ben Scher ’23. Scher praised his college’s ability to show up to all the games, recounting how at the first soccer match of the 2021 fall season, TD had enough people show up to field three teams. 

“If that doesn’t scream commitment and participation then I don’t know what does,” Scher said.

Timothy Dwight Head of College Mary Ting Yi Lui called this year “dynamic” in terms of IMs and is hopeful that TD will fight back in the remainder of the season. TD has a long history of winning Tyng Cups, as they were the winners of last year’s Tyng cup for the 14th time.

“Ultimately, we just have to keep showing up to games and winning to topple [Murray],” Scher told the News, showcasing the friendly, yet competitive environment of IM sports. “The head IM secretary, who is in Murray, is scared of TD, and so puts us in different divisions so as to save face and avoid dropping points to us.”

In response, Phillips, quoting a character in the show “Game of Thrones,” said that “the lion does not concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.”

But both Scher and Lu told the News how they would like to “commend” Phillips for his work as head secretary. Lu said that Phillips’ leadership has made IM sports a very “welcoming and positive environment.” 

Phillips, for his part, commended TD on their “enthusiasm and drive,” and said that he always looks forward to competing with them in IMs.

Vinh Tran ’25, an IM student player for Murray, told the News that the best part of IMs at Murray are the team captains, including Phillips, Esha Bhattacharya ’24 and Ted Wayland ’24. 

“Their weekly emails telling us to ‘live, laugh, love, dodge, ball’ show just how fun-spirited IMs are to play and represent your own college,” Tran said. 

Saybrook is currently in third place, although Head of College Thomas Near pointed out that over the last five years, the college has finished in first place as Tyng Cup champions three times. Near makes sure to treat IMs as “an aspect of wellness” for their community as well as a “competitive enterprise,” especially because of the high popularity of IMs within the college, he said.

According to Lu, Near has referred to Murray as “that nice college in Hamden” as he has watched the College climb above his own in IM standing. But Near also told the News that it is nice to see Murray at the top of the rankings because it is a “reflection of engaged IM secretaries in the college and inspired leadership from Prof. Lu.”

“An active IMs program will bring your community together, form connections among different year classes in the college, and give you the opportunity to throw light-hearted shade at other colleges,” Near told the News. “Levity has a long tradition in Yale College and IMs contribute to that aspect of our campus culture.”

As IM playoffs begin this week, the winner of this year’s Tyng Cup will be decided within the next few weeks.  The IM sports season will end on Mar. 17, before Spring Recess. 

Correction, March 7: A previous version of this article said that TD and Saybrook have been the only colleges to win the Tyng Cup in the last five years, but in 2019-2020, Grace Hopper actually tied with Saybrook in 1st place. The article has been updated to reflect this.