BOSTON, Mass. – Two Wentworth Institute of Technology
senior student-athletes had the department’s highest honor
bestowed upon them as men’s lacrosse player Tyler
Forthofer (Glastonbury, Conn.) and women’s
lacrosse player Lisa
Piccirillo (Islip, N.Y.) earned the Carl A. Swanson and Eugenia
Louise Sweeney Senior Scholar-Athlete Awards, respectively. The
awards are given annually to a male (Swanson Award) and female
(Sweeney Award) who has exhausted their eligibility, has a minimum
grade point average of a 3.25, and has excelled in his or her sport
while showing exemplary character.
Forthofer and Piccirillo were honored at Wentworth’s Varsity
Ring Ceremony, where 48 senior student-athletes who have completed
four years in their respective sport received a ring. This year
marked the 19th year of the event and over 600 student-athletes
have been recognized through the years.
A four-year mainstay on defense and co-captain of this year's
Leopards squad that won a school-record 11 games and advanced to
the finals of the ECAC Tournament, Forthofer picked up 34 ground
balls and caused 14 turnovers while helping the defense post a 7.46
goals against average, the second-lowest in program history. Six of
his 14 caused turnovers came in a 12-10 loss at the University of
New England in the ECAC championship. The Leopards’ 11 wins
in 2013 was a marked improvement from their 2-11 record in 2012 and
the 11 wins were one more than the previous three seasons
combined.
Starting 37 of the 45 games in which he played in over his career,
Forthofer ranks fourth all-time with 32 caused turnovers and 13th
in program history with 112 ground balls. He also scored a pair of
goals and had three career assists. He earned All-Commonwealth
Coast Conference honors this past season and became just the second
Wentworth men’s lacrosse player to ever be selected to play
in the USILA North/South Senior All-Star Game.
In addition to balancing academics and athletics, Forthofer has
been actively involved in the ROTC program as an Army ROTC
scholarship student and was commissioned earlier in the day.
Forthofer will serve seven years of active duty and one year of
reserve duty. He served as a member of Wentworth’s
student-athlete advisory committee and volunteered for Hurricane
Sandy relief on Long Island last fall.
When Piccirillo arrived at Wentworth as a freshman, the department
did not offer the sport of women’s lacrosse. With some
assistance from classmates who had also played the sport in high
school, they began the process of starting a club program. In the
fall of 2010, the program began with players having a wide range of
experience.
Continuing as a club program in the spring and fall of 2011,
Piccirillo’s efforts had paid off as Wentworth announced that
women’s lacrosse would become a varsity sport for the 2012-12
season – in time for her senior season.
A captain at both the club and varsity levels, her varsity debut
saw her finish third on the team in scoring with 16 points (11
goals, five assists), with five of her goals coming on
free-position shots. Off the field her she served as an orientation
leader for two years, took part in alternative spring break as a
sophomore, and graduated from the “Soar in Four Leadership
Program” where her capstone project was volunteering to
organize and run a lacrosse clinic for high school girls lacrosse
players. Lisa has been a part of Wentworth’s Accelerate
Challenge where she has done extensive research on women’s
lacrosse headgear and has been working on prototypes, in hopes of
making this project a reality. This past spring Lisa was one of 14
Wentworth student-athletes to be inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma, the
national college athlete honor society.
Both student-athletes will receive their Bachelor’s degree
at Wentworth’s commencement on Sunday, August 25. Forthofer
was a Mechanical Engineering Technology major, while Piccirillo
majored in Industrial Design.