Meet The 5 Rutgers Grads Competing In This Summer's Olympics

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — From the banks of the Raritan to Tokyo!

Five members of Team USA either graduated or attended Rutgers University. The two biggest names are Jersey Girl/global soccer champ Carli Lloyd and Todd Frazier, formerly of the Mets/Yankees.

These are technically the 2020 Olympics (delayed one year by the pandemic). Japan will not be allowing fans in the stands, but the Olympic games are still scheduled to proceed. Baseball is returning to the Olympics this summer for the first time since 2008.

The Olympics begin with the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 23 and end Sunday, Aug. 8.

The five players from Rutgers are:

Carli Lloyd: Team USA women's soccer

Todd Frazier: Team USA baseball

Patrick Kivlehan: Team USA baseball

Darren Fenster: Team USA baseball

Rudy Winkler: Team USA Track & Field (hammer throw)

Carli Lloyd: Tokyo will be Lloyd's fourth Olympic games. Lloyd has won gold twice, in the 2008 Olympics against Brazil and at the 2012 London Olympics against Japan. Originally from Delran, New Jersey, Lloyd attended Rutgers from 2001-2004, where she was a two-time NSCAA All-American on the Scarlet Knights women's soccer team.

Rutgers knew Lloyd was special, years before she became a global household name: In 2001, as a mere freshman, she took RU to their second-ever NCAA tournament.

Lloyd sits in the Rutgers' record books for the most single-season points (37) and goals (15), and total points (117) and goals (50). In fact, ever since Lloyd came on the team, the Rutgers women's soccer program has become a perennial contender, competing in 11 of the last 13 NCAA tournaments.

Lloyd was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Fame in 2018. She still stands as the all-time leading scorer midfielder for the U.S. women's soccer team. Lloyd currently plays professionally for NJ/NY Gotham Football Club.

Todd Frazier: Infielder Frazier is originally from Point Pleasant, New Jersey and as a kid, he was on the Toms River East American Team that won the 1998 Little League World Series.

He is considered one of the best baseball players to ever attend Rutgers, where he played for three seasons, leaving at the end of the 2007 season.

At Rutgers, Frazier earned unanimous Big East 2007 Player of the Year, helping the Scarlet Knights to 42 wins, tying the school record. He was a first-round pick in the MLB draft and has played for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates. He won the Home Run Derby in 2015.

When he's not competing in the Olympics, you can watch Frazier as the third baseman for the Sussex County Miners.

Patrick Kivlehan: Outfielder Kivlehan played two sports in his time at Rutgers, football and baseball. Kivlehan was a safety for the Scarlet Knights football team for four years and then joined the baseball program as a walk-on for the 2012 season.

Readjusting to baseball for the first time since high school, Kivlehan nonetheless took Rutgers to the team's first triple crown in Big East history that year, with a .402 average, 10 home runs and 36 RBIs. The Mariners drafted him in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB draft. This most recent season, he played for the San Diego Padres.

Darren Fenster: Fenster attended Rutgers from 1997-2000, where he was a two-time All-American shortstop and four-year starter. He went on to play five years for the Kansas City Royals.

Fenster remains Rutgers' all-time leader in several offensive categories, including career hits (315), single-season hits (101) and career doubles (65). At Rutgers, he was part of three Big East Conference regular season and tournament championships, winning the 1998 and 2000 titles as a player and achieving the feat again in 2007 as a member of the coaching staff.

Fenster has been a coach with the Boston Red Sox since 2012. In this summer's Olympics, he will be the third-base coach.

Rudy Winkler: Winkler, who got his MBA from Rutgers, will make his second Olympics this summer; he went to the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. He placed 18th in hammer throw in the 2016 Olympic games.

This past June, he qualified by breaking the 25-year-old American record in the hammer throw at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He was also the 2016 Trials champion.

Prior to arriving at Rutgers, Winkler captured the 2017 national title in the hammer while at Cornell. He is originally from New York state.

While at Rutgers, Winkler claimed the 2018 Big Ten Outdoor Championship hammer throw title with a mark of 73.85 (an incredible 242' 3"), breaking the Scarlet Knight record for the third time and setting a Big Ten Championship record in the process.

Honorable mention:

Sam Mattis: Track & Field (discus throw)

Mattis did not attend Rutgers. However, he is originally from East Brunswick and went to University of Pennsylvania, where he was a star discus thrower. According to NJ.com, he spent 2020 volunteering with the Rutgers track team as he trained. This summer will be Mattis' first Olympics.

Be the first to know. Sign up to get Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com