Four Knights receive USILA Division I Scholar All-American recognition

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Christian Della Rocco, Tommy Fialkowski, Denton McDonald And Kyle Playsted have been named United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Division I Scholar All-Americans, the organization announced Thursday.

Bellarmine also earned the USILA Team Academic Award for achieving a team GPA of 3.0 or higher for the fourth straight season. Their team GPA of 3.33 is the third highest in program history, behind the 2020 and 2023 teams.

Notably, Bellarmine is one of only thirteen Division I programs with at least four student-athletes on this year's roster. A total of 44 Division I programs feature at least one recognized player. The four winners set a new program record for the Knights, beating the previous of three from the 2021 team.

The top three point scorers in Bellarmine history have now all received USILA Scholar All-American laurels: Playsted (222 points), Della Rocco (139 points) and Benny O'Rourk (169 points), which was on the list last year.

Della Rocco, who was previously honored on the Academic All-ASUN team and played in the USILA Senior All-Star Game, graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.52 with a degree in business administration. A native of Westfield, NJ, he finished third on the Knights this season in assists (12) and fourth in goals (24), points (36), shots (85) and shots on goal (50), despite missing the first four games. of the season due to injury.

Fialkowski appeared in all 17 games on defense and ranked fifth on the Knights with 13 turnovers caused. The Atlanta native achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.83 while studying finance. Additionally, he became the first lacrosse player since Max Cartor in 2019 to graduate from the Bellarmine Honors Program.

Macdonald, a two-year captain and the player head coach Andrew Whitley described as the best all-around lacrosse player in the program, earned a cumulative GPA of 3.41 while earning his degree in psychology. The Victoria, British Columbia native finished tied for second on the team with 16 goals, fifth with 29 groundballs and seventh with seven goals.

Playsted also received an All-ASUN Second Team selection this season and achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.13, graduating with a degree in psychology. The Calgary native led Bellarmine, finishing fourth in the ASUN with 61 points. He finished second in the ASUN with 29 assists and ninth with 32 goals. He became the first Knight to individually reach the plateaus of 100 career goals, 100 career assists and 200 career points.

All four players were previously named to the ASUN Honor Roll, while Della Rocco and Fialkowski graduated with ASUN Honors for having a cumulative GPA above 3.50.

A total of 11 Knights have now been honored as USILA Division I Scholar All-Americans. The group joins O'Rourk this year (2023), Jacob Berggren (2023), Jon Robbins (2021), Eric Rubak (2021), Landon Trout (2021), Kevin Fahey (2018) and Colin Hart (2015). Nine of the 11 honorees have played under Whitley.

According to the USILA, the organization established the Scholar All-America program to recognize student-athletes from member institutions who have distinguished themselves academically, athletically and as citizens of their communities. A USILA Scholar All-American must be nominated by their coach and be a student with senior year academic standing and a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 (4.0 scale). He will have conducted himself in a manner that brought credit to himself, his institution and college lacrosse both on and off the field.

The full list of USILA Scholar All-Americans can be found here.

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