Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/24/20
From Press Release
Both Tewaaraton Award candidates on the field, Conor Gaffney (Lenape-NJ) and Andrew Pettit (Tower Hill-DE) of the Lehigh men’s lacrosse team have been named two of just 20 candidates nation-wide for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, as announced late last week.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. Lehigh is one of just two schools nationally with multiple honorees (along with Penn State), and the only men’s lacrosse program in the country with multiple honorees in back-to-back years.
In total, the Mountain Hawks have had 10 different Senior CLASS Award candidates over the last 10 years (with Pettit garnering the honor twice). Pettit and Craig Chick were both named candidates last year. Then, when Pettit came back to Lehigh for a fifth year due to his season-ending injury in 2019, he was eligible to be nominated for the honor again.
Along with Gaffney, Pettit and Chick, previous Lehigh men’s lacrosse Senior CLASS Award candidates were Cody Triolo in 2017, Casey Eidenshink (La Salle) in 2016, Dan Taylor in 2015, Ty Souders (Emmaus) in 2014, Ryan Snyder in 2013 and Jonathan Stumpf in 2011. Chick, Souders and Stumpf were all named finalists.
To be eligible for the Senior CLASS Award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
The 20 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced in conjunction with the 2020 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship in May.
Following a 2-0 weekend, the No. 17 Mountain Hawks return to action on Saturday when they open Patriot League play at home vs. Navy. Opening faceoff is set for 3 p.m. as the second game of a Lehigh Lacrosse doubleheader.
Conor Gaffney
Community
Gaffney and the Mountain Hawks have continually taken part in community service. Just a few days into every fall semester, the men’s lacrosse program holds its annual community service kickoff for the City of Bethlehem Parks and Recreation.
In each of the last three seasons, Lehigh has taken part in the Nicholas Colleluori Classic. Lehigh joined forces with the HEADstrong Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to providing essential services to improve lives affected by cancer. In 2017, Lehigh Lacrosse more than quadrupled its initial fundraising goal of $3,000 by raising $13,339 for HEADstrong’s 2017 “Go Lime” campaign. It was the most money raised by any team or group of teams in the entire campaign. Then in 2018, the Mountain Hawks absolutely shattered their goal, raising over $20,000 for the fight against cancer. The strong fundraising only continued in 2019.
In addition, every holiday season, Gaffney and the Mountain Hawks take part in Adopt-A-Family where they provide a holiday for a local underprivileged family. The process includes shopping for gifts, wrapping them and delivering them in early December. Gaffney also gave back to the community when he was a PPL Electric Utilities intern, taking part in Intern Community Day – completing various tasks to better the community’s appearance.
Classroom
Gaffney’s academic success is endless, currently owning a 3.94 cumulative GPA as a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Integrated Business and Engineering (Finance). Still with a year remaining, he has already tied a Patriot League record by winning the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year twice. If he wins it in 2020, he’d become the first student-athlete in program history to win it three times. Gaffney is a two-time Academic All-District honoree and Academic All-American. He’s a multi-time winner of the team’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.
Gaffney has put forth a perfect 4.0 semester GPA on multiple occasions and has been named to the Dean’s List (for a semester GPA of 3.6 or higher) every semester so far. Gaffney is doing this in two of Lehigh’s most demanding curriculum (Mechanical Engineering and Finance) at a school that’s tied for 50th nationally in the U.S. News and World Report top national universities.
Gaffney is a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honors Society and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Gaffney won the Elisha P. Wilbur Mathematics Award for the top performance in first-year engineering mathematics courses. He has an internship lined up with ExxonMobil for the coming summer and is planning on coming back to Lehigh for a fifth year through the President’s Scholarship program to get an engineering Master’s degree. The program recognizes outstanding academic achievement by undergraduate students by providing a fifth year of study free of tuition.
Character
Gaffney is a well-respected team member who has developed into a strong leader by example on the field, in the classroom, in the weight room and more. Gaffney has been heavily involved in Lehigh men’s lacrosse’s Leadership Council (council of voted-upon individuals from each class to handle the vision and goals of the team). In addition, integrity is an important component of Gaffney’s Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society Gaffney.
Gaffney has shown strong leadership in a number of other ways. He is the founder of South Jersey Faceoff Club, founding a youth faceoff instruction and training program that’s run in affiliation with the TRIBAL Lacrosse Club. Gaffney has developed and managed strong relationships with customers through effective communication, managing all logistics, promotions and financials of the business.
Competition
On the field, Gaffney has been equally as impressive. He was one of just two Patriot League players named a preseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse and later was one of just two faceoff specialists named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List. The reigning Patriot League Faceoff Specialist of the Year and honorable mention USILA and Inside Lacrosse All-American, Gaffney set league and program records for faceoff wins (249) and groundballs (152) in a season when he was a junior. He finished fourth nationally in faceoff percentage, winning 69.7 percent, including 60 percent or better in 15-of-17 games.
Gaffney has won a Patriot League weekly award 14 times in his career – seven as a freshman (Faceoff Specialist of the Week three times and Rookie of the Week four times), four as a sophomore and three as a junior. Gaffney was named first team All-League as a sophomore, finishing first in the league with a 59.4 faceoff percentage which was good for 14th nationally. He also finished 17th in the nation in groundballs per game (5.94). Gaffney has played a key role in the team’s success, helping the Mountain Hawks to back-to-back Patriot League Championship Games. As a junior last season, he was named to the All-Tournament Team after winning 15-of-22 vs. Boston University then 18-of-22 (including 13 in a row end to the game) against Army West Point in a truly dominant effort.
So far in 2020, Gaffney has 69.4 percent of his faceoffs (50-of-72) with 31 groundballs. He is up to 652 career faceoff wins and 380 groundballs (just four from tying the Patriot League career record). In April of his junior season, Gaffney became the program’s all-time leader for career groundballs.
Andrew Pettit
Classroom
Pettit has enjoyed impressive success at a prestigious institution; Lehigh is currently tied for 50th nationally in the U.S. News and World Report top national universities. Pettit owns a 3.23 cumulative GPA as a double major in Finance and Management, and Real Estate minor. That includes a 3.5 GPA in Pettit’s major and minor classes. Most recently, Pettit earned a spot on the Dean’s List in the fall of 2019 with a 3.75 semester GPA as the fourth highest semester GPA on the team. Pettit was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll in 2017, 2018 and 2019 with spring semester GPAs of 3.4, 3.48 and 3.46, respectively.
Pettit, who recently accepted a job in commercial real estate in New York City, has also received the Faculty Athletics Council Award almost every semester for semester GPAs over 3.2. He has plenty of relevant work experience, including two summers ago when he worked with Roch Capital as a Real Estate Investment Analyst Intern. While there, Pettit modeled over $600 million in potential investment properties in markets all over the United States. The prior summer (2017), Pettit was a Global Provider Strategy Intern at BlackRock. He aided in BAU projected and had other responsibilities such as helping create presentations, excel documents and other communication pieces. Pettit helped with the implementation and improvement of the due diligence control and review program with emphasis on Business Continuity Management, Technology Risk Management, Disaster Recovery, Information Security and Sourcing and Vendor Management.
Character
Pettit is a three-time captain of the Lehigh men’s lacrosse team, devoting 20+ hours per week to weight training, skill work, practice, conditioning, film study and team meetings. As a junior in 2018, Pettit impressed so much in the way he carried himself and served as a leader that he was added as one of the team’s assistant captains mid-season. The Mountain Hawks went on to advance to the Patriot League Championship Game. Despite being injured in the preseason last year (2019) and missing the entire season, Pettit still used his leadership to help the Mountain Hawks to their second consecutive Patriot League Championship Game. He was again named a team captain prior to the 2020 season.
Within the men’s lacrosse program, different councils have been created and Pettit has been heavily involved in the Leadership Council (council of voted-upon individuals from each class to handle the vision and goals of the team). Pettit has also taken part in Flight 45 – Lehigh Athletics’ Leadership Academy – in the Emerging Leaders Program (hand-picked student-athletes to undergo leadership development and education).
Community
Pettit and the Mountain Hawks have continually taken part in community service. Just a few days into every fall semester, the men’s lacrosse program holds its annual community service kickoff for the City of Bethlehem Parks and Recreation. Pettit and the Mountain Hawks have also hosted Community Night in the past when they open their doors to all members of the community for an hour-long free lacrosse clinic.
In each of the last three seasons, Lehigh has taken part in the Nicholas Colleluori Classic. Lehigh joined forces with the HEADstrong Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to providing essential services to improve lives affected by cancer. In 2017, Lehigh Lacrosse more than quadrupled its initial fundraising goal of $3,000 by raising $13,339 for HEADstrong’s 2017 “Go Lime” campaign. It was the most money raised by any team or group of teams in the entire campaign. Then in 2018, the Mountain Hawks absolutely shattered their goal, raising over $20,000 for the fight against cancer. The strong fundraising only continued in 2019.
In the past, Pettit has been involved with Reading Rocks at local Donegan Elementary School. With Reading Rocks, the whole team spent approximately one hour with the students, helping them read before getting to know the youngsters through playing games and other activities. Every holiday season, Pettit and the Mountain Hawks take part in Adopt-A-Family where they provide a holiday for a local underprivileged family. The process includes shopping for gifts, wrapping and delivering them in early December.
Competition
Pettit suffered a season-ending injury last preseason, but has returned in 2020 for a fifth year. Named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List as junior and now again as a fifth-year senior, Pettit has developed into one of the nation’s best offensive players. A two-time All-Patriot League honoree, Pettit was named to the first team as a junior in 2018, among the best attackmen in a league that included Pat Spencer of Loyola, Will Sands of Bucknell and Chris Gray of Boston University. Pettit led the Mountain Hawks in goals (46, which also led the Patriot League) and points (66), good for fourth and ninth in school history, respectively. Pettit finished 10th nationally in goals per game (2.71). He also finished third nationally in man-up goals with 10. Pettit had 14 multi-goal games, 16 multi-point games and nine hat tricks.
Also in 2018, Pettit tied a career-high seven points vs. Holy Cross while also adding seven points at Hofstra. Hofstra stood as the nation’s No. 1 defense at the time and Pettit went on to have more points himself (7) than the Pride were allowing on average (6.33) entering the day. Pettit also scored five goals at No. 12 Army, including the first three goals of the fourth quarter to turn a 6-5 Lehigh deficit into an 8-6 lead. That effort earned Pettit Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week honors and a spot on the USILA National Team of the Week.
So far in 2020, Pettit owns 11 goals and eight assists through four games. Against VMI, Pettit scored eight goals (five in the third quarter) to tie a program record. He also collected a career-high eight groundballs to become the first Division I men’s lacrosse player in at least the last 10 years to post 8+ goals and 8+ groundballs in the same game. Pettit is up to 99 career goals and 139 points in his career.