By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/30/10

Downingtown West senior midfielder Connor Mullen has made a verbal commitment to play Division I lacrosse at St. John’s University.

Downingtown West's Connor Mullen

Mullen helped the Whippets finish 12-8 and advance to the second round of the District 1 tournament. He also played on the bronze medal winning Chester County team at the Keystone Games.

“When I went up for my visit I found the campus to be very nice, not too big and not too small,” said Mullen, who moved to Downingtown West from Lenape High, N.J., as a junior. “Meeting the guys (on the team) made it a lot easier. The surroundings were great and the coaches were easy to talk to.”

Mullen, an Honor Roll student,  plans to major in Accounting, Finance or Marketing.

Mullen will join a number of Philly players at St. John’s. Others seniors that signed in the fall include Springfield-Delco’s Colin Keegan (attackman) and Joe Addona (long stick midfielder). Junior Joe Venit (Springfield-Delco) also committed.

This year’s Red Storm feature four Philly graduates – attackmen Tyler Novotny (Spring-Ford) and Adam Bitzer (Central Bucks East) and midfielder Jarrett Carr (Hatboro-Horsham) and defenseman Andrew Zbikowski (La Salle).

Mullen is the fourth member of the Whippets to commit to a Division I school. Others are attackman Ryan Higgins and long stick midfielder Tyler Rankel (Robert Morris) and attackman Eric Sanders (Albany).

Mullen noted that the Whippets – off to a 3-0 start – are primed to challenge for the Ches-Mont League championship.

“Definitely, this is our heaviest recruiting year,” he said. “For us to have four players committing to Division 1 teams makes our expectations really high.

“Our young guys are really stepping up and we worked so hard in the off-season, molding all the loose ends together.”

Tags: Downingtown West