Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. VMI senior goalie Michael Hutwelker donated his stem cells to a 51-year-old male with leukemia through the HEADstrong Foundation. Hutwelker provided a cheek swab during the HEADstrong Lacrosse tournament his freshman year in 2013, then received messages one month before graduating in 2017 that he was a potential match for the stem cell recipient.
“I had totally forgotten that I even provided that sample more than three years ago,” said Hutwelker, a Lahaska, Pa., native. “I was surprised, but really excited that I might be able to make a huge difference for someone else.”
The HEADstrong Foundation, founded by former Hofstra defenseman Nicolas Colleluori who died from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a blood cancer, in 2006, aims to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and their families by providing essential services.
Hutwelker missed Monday’s game at Monmouth, and will also miss a week of practice and Saturday’s tilt against Air Force in order to recover, but the stem cell harvesting procedure has not severely affected his daily assignments or military duties. Hutwelker, majoring in mechanical engineering, has lined up a job as a project engineer with CVG Building Company in Arlington, Va.
2. The Vermont Voyageurs of the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League (QSLL), which includes Junior Voyageurs (17-21) and Senior Voyageurs (21+), will suspend operations prior to the 2017 season after eight seasons of competition, owners Joe Evans, Jake Rick, Duke Szymanski and Trevor Wagar announced Monday.
The Vermont Voyageurs operated as the longest-running box lacrosse franchise in the United States, and the only U.S.-based team to compete in the Canadian Junior and Senior Leagues.
“My original goal was to create opportunities for American players to compete in high-level box lacrosse against well-established Canadian and Native teams,” said founder Jeff Culkin.
In August 2015, the Voyageurs were invited to compete in two scrimmages against the U.S. men’s national indoor team to help Team USA prepare for the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.
Regy Thorpe, current coach of the 2019 U.S. men’s indoor team, aims to get the best U.S. players for the box game, building the program up to compete with the Canadians and Iroquois.
3. In this week’s Nike/US Lacrosse rankings, Syracuse becomes the new No. 1 in Division I men’s lacrosse, while former top seed Penn State drops to No. 5 after suffering its first loss of the season to Big Ten rival Maryland.
There wasn’t much movement on the women’s side, but James Madison is back on track, jumping up two spots as the leader in the CAA. On the flipside, Boston College dropped four spots after being upset by Duke.
A look at the major-college and junior-college polls released on Monday:
NIKE/USL RANKINGS
MD1 | WD1 | MD2 | WD2 | MD3 | WD3
MAVERIK/CASCADE/IL MEDIA POLLS
MD1 | WD1
USILA POLLS
MD1 | MD2 | MD3
IWLCA POLLS
WD1 | WD2 | WD3
JUNIOR COLLEGE MEN
4. The Epoch/US Lacrosse Players of the Week are North Carolina’s Marie McCool on the women’s side and Denver’s Trevor Baptiste on the men’s side.
5. The NCAA early recruiting legislation vote nears. Stay up to date by revisiting content produced by US Lacrosse surrounding the proposal.
6. It was a quiet Monday night. Monmouth defeated VMI 15-8 in the lone Division I men’s game. The only Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20 team in action was No. 15 Mercy in Division II women, which dominated Philadelphia 18-1.