RICHMOND, Va. – Jack McKenna has been named as the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Rookie of the Year to highlight the All-CAA honors collected by Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse, as announced on Wednesday by the conference.
Taylor Strough earned All-CAA First Team laurels, while the trio of McKenna,
Mike Drake and
Braden Lynch was tabbed for the Second Team.
McKenna was a star on attack for the Stags in 2022, scoring 43 goals with three assists. He finished the regular season tied for the CAA lead in goals, while his 3.07 goals per game slotted second in the conference and set a new Fairfield single-season record. McKenna's 43 goals were three shy of the Fairfield freshman record of 46 tallies established by Colin Burke '19 and five short of the overall mark of 48 goals set by Hall of Famer Spencer Steele '00. On the national charts, McKenna ranks 16th overall and third among freshmen in goals per game.
McKenna is the third CAA Rookie of the Year for the Stags since joining the CAA in 2015, following Will Fox '18 in 2015 and Burke in 2016. He is the eighth overall conference Rookie of the Year in program history, with Dave Fleming '17 named ECAC Rookie of the Year in 2014, Troy Bamann '04 and Greg Downing '07 collecting GWLL Rookie of the Year in 2001 and 2004, respectively, and J.T. Groarke '99 and Steele nabbing back-to-back MAAC Rookie of the Year awards in 1996 and 1997.
Also an All-CAA Second Team selection on attack, McKenna and Towosn faceoff man Matt Constantinides are the only two true freshmen to early All-CAA honors. McKenna scored 14 goals in the five-game CAA slate to rank third on that chart.
Strough is Fairfield's first All-CAA First Team pick since 2016 after garnering Second Team laurels in both 2019 and 2021. He ranked fourth in the CAA and 32nd in the nation with 2.79 goals per game, potting a career-best 39 markers from the midfield to finish third all-time in program history with 117 career goals. He is also sixth on the points leaderboard with 145 in his five-year career.
Strough joins Tyler Behring '17 as Fairfield's second three-time All-CAA honoree.
McKenna was flanked on the Second Team by Drake and Lynch. Drake – a graduate transfer from Notre Dame – ranked third on the team with 25 goals and tied for third with 41 total points in his lone campaign as a Stag. Eleven of his goals came during conference play, including five in the third quarter of Fairfield's comeback win at UMass, and he ranked fifth in the CAA with 3.80 points per game during the league slate.
Lynch claims his first All-CAA nod as a defenseman. The sophomore ranked second on the team with 44 ground balls and 17 caused turnovers starting all 14 games on close defense. His 3.14 ground balls per game were the most in the CAA by a non-faceoff man. The Stags led the CAA and ranked among the top-25 nationally in both ground balls per game (34.36) and caused turnovers per game (8.50).
Fairfield also boasted the second-best man-down unit in the conference at .660 and lowered its goals allowed by nearly two per game (15.27 to 13.36) from the 2021 campaign.
Rounding out the Stag' honorees, McKenna and
Zack Antoniou both earned a slot on the CAA All-Rookie Team. Antoniou joined Lynch as a starter on close defense for all 14 games, recording a team-high 19 caused turnovers and scooping up 23 ground balls.
Fairfield's 7-7 record is a five-win improvement from 2021's 2-9 campaign. The Stags also won a pair of CAA games after snapping a 16-game conference losing streak on April 2 with their win over Hofstra.
