Stanwick takes home Tewaaraton

Virginia junior attackman Steele Stanwick has become the third Cavalier to win the coveted Tewaaraton Trophy, awarded to the top male collegiate lacrosse player, announced by the Greater Washington Alliance on Thursday night inside Washington D.C.’s Warner Theatre.

Stanwick (Baltimore, Md.) joins Chris Rotelli (2003) and Matt Ward (2006) as Virginia Cavaliers who have won college lacrosse’s top honor. All three of UVa’s Tewaaraton Trophy winners earned the award in a season they led the Cavaliers to a NCAA title.

Of the 11 all-time Tewaaraton Trophy winners, UVa has more first-time winners of any school. Three times a Syracuse player has won the award, but twice it was by Mikey Powell (2002 & 2003), the only two-time winner. Stanwick is the third Tewaaraton winner to win the award not in their final year of eligibility. Powell first won the award as a sophomore, while Duke’s Matt Danowski (2007) was a recipient in his fourth of five seasons at Duke.

Stanwick finished the season No. 3 in the nation with 2.24 assists per game and No. 4 in the nation with 4.12 points per game. The junior tallied 21 points (9 points, 12 assists) in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, leading Virginia to the program’s fifth all-time title. Stanwick was named to the All-NCAA Championship Tournament team. He also was the ACC Player of the Year and earned USILA first-team All-America accolades in 2011.

Stanwick was joined by four other finalists at the Warner Theatre on Thursday night in Washington D.C. The other finalists this season included Army’s Jeremy Boltus, Cornell’s Rob Bannell, and Syracuse’s John Galloway and Joel White.

In 2011 there was an addition of a new element to the awards ceremony called “Tewaaraton Legends.” The award will be presented to one recipient each year who played collegiately prior to 2001 when the first Tewaaraton Award was presented, whose performance during their college years would have earned them a Tewaaraton Award had the award existed when they played.

The inaugural Tewaaraton Legend honored this evening was Syracuse’s James “Jim” Brown, former NFL record-setting running back for the Cleveland Browns.