Lyle Thompson Wins 2015 Tewaaraton Award

At its 15th annual Tewaaraton Award Ceremony held at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., the Tewaaraton Foundation bestowed upon Albany's Lyle Thompson its Tewaaraton Award, an honor given to the top college lacrosse player in the United States. Thompson is the first male back-to-back Tewaaraton Award winner after sharing the recognition with his brother, Miles, a year ago and is only the second player to claim the Tewaaraton Award more than once (Syracuse's Mike Powell owned the trophy in 2002 and 2004). The tribute to Thompson represents the 11th time in the last decade and a half that an attackman has won the award. Denver's Wes Berg, Duke's Myles Jones, Notre Dame's Matt Kavanagh, and Syracuse's Kevin Rice were the other finalists for the Tewaaraton Foundation's accolade.

Thompson's veneration caps off an impressive season for the former Great Dane. The focal point of Albany's absurd offense, Thompson generated a nation-leading 121 points this past spring -- his 121 points trails only his 128-point campaign in 2014 on the NCAA's listing for most impressive single-season efforts -- and finished first in Division I in both points per game (6.37) and assists per game (3.63). En route to leading the purple and gold to the national quarterfinals for the second straight season, Thompson managed to capture the NCAA's record for total points in a career (400, surpassing the mark that Cornell's Rob Pannell set in 2013 (354)) and total assists in a career (224, surpassing the standard that North Carolina State's and Syracuse's Tim Nelson set in 1985 (221)). His presence within the game -- and beyond -- is well established, made further concrete through the Tewaaraton Foundation's appreciation of Thompson's final run on a college lacrosse field.

There remains only nine players to have won both the Tewaaraton Award and Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award -- the USILA's analogue to the Tewaaraton Award, although the Enners Award carries with it a longer history -- in the same season, but Thompson is now the only player in the elite group to collar both the Tewaaraton Award and Enners Award in the same season twice (Powell witnessed the Enners Award fall into the hands of Georgetown's Steve Dusseau in 2002).