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By now, you should be more than familiar with our series of regularly updating leaderboards for various Marquette Golden Eagles sports accomplishments. Keep checking back to that link in the previous sentence for our charts as the seasons continue to churn through history and MU’s various teams continue to create new memories and accomplishments.
Here, we’re going to talk about the best helpers in men’s lacrosse history, aka the guys with the most assists.
I’m going to go ahead and say that Conor Gately’s program record for assists of 63 is safe this season. Same goes for Ryan McNamara’s hold on second place all-time with 50. No one on the roster is within 25 of McNamara, and the program record for assists in a season remains at 20 posted by Conor Gately in 2013, the first year of Division 1 lacrosse in Milwaukee.
The man with 25 is Jake Stegman, who had 13 assists a year ago, second most on the team, and that was enough to more than double up his total from his first two years with the Golden Eagles. That’s also got him at #9 all time, two behind Kyran Clarke and Griffin Fleming. It’s also one ahead of a three-way tie for the 10th most assists in program history, where Devon Cowan is locked up with Kyle Whitlow and Ryan Fazio with 24 career helpers.
Cowan has had exactly eight assists in each of his first three seasons with Marquette, and if we project him for another eight, that gets him into the top five all-time, just past Tyler Melnyk and Tanner Thomson who have 30. If Stegman puts up another 13, and he had 10 as a freshman so this is in the range of possibilities, he’ll get past Andy DeMichiei for the third most assists in program history.
This of course means we’re ignoring MU’s assists leader from last year. Will Foster had 16 assists as a freshman, the most by any Marquette player since John Wagner had 18 in 2019. If it is possible for Foster to do it again, then he has a shot at going into the top five, or at least breaking past Melnyk and Thomson. Who knows where Stegman and Cowan might be by the time Foster gets to 30? Worst case scenario, we’re getting three more years of Will Foster, and who knows what kind of total he can put up at the end of it?
Foster is currently in a tie for the 14th most assists in program history, so it’s still kind of a low bar to get in there. With that in mind, we’ll keep an eye on Holden Patterson and Chris Kirschner who have tallied up six assists across four and three seasons with MU respectively. Pierce Washburn had five helpers last year as a sophomore and in his first season of big time statistically contribution, while Bobby O’Grady had a perfectly healthy five assists to go with his gaudy goal scoring numbers as a freshman last year. Both guys have multiple years left to go, so they should wander into the top 15 at some point.
Here’s what the chart looks like after Marquette’s game against #10 Denver.
Marquette Men’s Lacrosse Career Assists Chart
Rank | Player | Assists |
---|---|---|
Rank | Player | Assists |
1 | Conor Gately | 63 |
2 | Jake Stegman | 57 |
3 | Ryan McNamara | 50 |
4 | Andy DeMichiei | 36 |
5 | John Wagner | 34 |
6 | Tyler Melnyk | 30 |
7 | Tanner Thomson | 30 |
8 | Devon Cowan | 28 |
9 | Kyran Clarke | 27 |
10 | Griffin Fleming | 27 |
11 | Will Foster | 26 |
12 | Kyle Whitlow | 24 |
13 | Ryan Fazio | 24 |
14 | Jordan Greenfield | 18 |
15 | Connor McClelland | 16 |
NR | Bobby O'Grady | 11 |
NR | Holden Patterson | 7 |
NR | Chris Kirschner | 6 |
NR | Pierce Washburn | 6 |