LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell Men's Lacrosse team hosted their annual Spring Academic Awards and Leadership Ceremony on Friday night at Alumni Hall, honoring 34 student athletes who received a 3.0 or higher grade point average during the fall semester.

The River Hawks earned the second highest GPA of any UMass Lowell men's team in the fall of 2016 with a 3.22 team GPA.

"We had another great semester in the classroom earning a team GPA of 3.22, with 34 individuals earning over a 3.0.  I'm so proud of our guys; they are excelling in a wide variety of majors and areas of interest, and they've been great ambassadors for our university."

Senior Martin Winter (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and sophomore Grant Lardieri (Ada, Mich.) earned the prestigious Diamond Hawk Award, awarded the the student-athlete with the highest team GPA.

Several alumni were invited back to participate in the event including Jeff Aronis '92, Steve Murphy '87, Ray Southworth '81 and Mike Zuccaro '83

"I always look forward to this special celebration. The exposure to positive, successful mentors is invaluable to our student-athletes, and this year's group of guests is spectacular," said Head Coach Ed Stephenson. We are excited to welcome back four alums, Jeff Aronis, Steve Murphy, Ray Southworth, and Mike Zuccaro, in addition to having two great speakers, Kevin Gould Sr. and Ben Smith. This has become such an important event for our guys. We celebrate their academic success of the previous semester, and provide valuable mentorship and interaction."    

Ben Smith and Kevin Gould, Sr. were the keynote speakers at the event. Smith is in his second year at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. He played and graduated from Harvard University, played a fifth year at Johns Hopkins University, coached for two years at Harvard University before entering Tufts. Gould, was the Senior Chief Operating Officer at Tyco Healthcare and spent over 30 years in the healthcare industry beginning as a sales representative in the Boston area.

The names of all the award winners from the fall semester are listed below.

Diamond Hawk Award (3.99-4.00) - 2
Grant Lardieri
Martin Winter

Gold Hawk Award (3.70-3.99) - 7
Mark Campanile
Brandon Luitwieler
Josh Masse
Blaine McMahon
Jon Phillips
Greg Ponce
Will Russo

Silver Hawk Award (3.30 – 3.69) - 12
John Bartlett
Brandon Beland
Brett Dattilo
Wes Harrington
Bill Lafferty
Ryder Lessing
Giles Ober
Nick Pino
Brian Porcella
Will Puduski
Bain Schroeder
Sean Tyrrell

Bronze Hawk Award (3.00 – 3.29) - 14
Matt Balter
Stephen Bernabei
Jonathon Connelly (TEAM IMPACT)
Nikko D'Eramo
Cory Highfield
Bryce Holak
Colin Kasner
Sam Klingsporn
Keenan Koswin
Cliff Kurker
Chris Litchfield
Hayden Matarazzo
Gage Sevigny
Jared Zaniewski