Great-ful Danes

McClancy wins America East Man of the Year 

McClancy controls the ball in this shot from a May 12 matchup against Richmond in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 13, 2018) – Lacrosse star Kyle McClancy was honored as the 2017-18 America East Man of the Year, a recognition of his achievements on the field, in the classroom and in the community.

He is the first UAlbany student to win the award, which he received June 5 at the America East annual awards dinner in Savannah, Ga. He was a finalist along with Maine’s Sam Lenson and Stony Brook’s Tyler Anderson.

“Kyle McClancy is an outstanding example of what it means to be a Great Dane,” said UAlbany Director of Athletics Mark Benson. “Our departmental motto is ‘Great Leaders, Great Champions, Great Danes.’ His exceptional performance on the lacrosse field, along with his commitment to academic excellence and community service, are strong reflections of those values.

“Kyle is a worthy recipient of this prestigious award and we are all very proud of him. He is an outstanding ambassador for the University at Albany and the America East Conference."

Lacrosse star Kyle McClancy, top, won America East Man of the Year, while Track & Field standouts Tara Belinsky and Kyle Gronostaj were honored with Helping Hands awards.

UAlbany was also honored at the annual dinner with Stuart P. Haskell Commissioner’s Cup, awarded to top-performing athletic department in the America East. This is the sixth consecutive year that UAlbany has won the Commissioner’s Cup, and the seventh time overall. This season UAlbany won six America East titles and had two runner-up finishes and four regular-season championships.

Benson called the win a “tremendous achievement that speaks to the commitment, consistency of effort and overall excellence of our student-athletes, coaches and staff. We are proud of the fact that our student-athletes have consistently succeeded in the classroom with an outstanding overall department GPA of 3.11.

Man of the Year

McClancy, a business major who played midfield, graduated in May and earlier this month made his professional debut with the Atlanta Blaze in Major League Lacrosse.

At UAlbany, he earned Second Team All-America honors from both the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and Inside Lacrosse (he was honorable mention for both in 2017) and was named America East All-Conference First Team for the second year in a row. Finishing the season with 29 goals, 19 assists and 36 ground balls in 19 starts, he helped UAlbany earn its first trip to the Final Four of the NCAA Championships.

With a 3.93 GPA in business management and finance, McClancy was named a 2017-18 SUNY Scholar-Athlete. He also was honored as an America East Presidential Scholar-Athlete and named a USILA Scholar All-American (for the second time) and the America East Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men’s lacrosse in 2017. He is a three-time member of the America East All-Academic Team.

McClancy also was active in the community, volunteering with JP’s Wide World of Sports, the enCourage Kids Foundation, the Capital Region Miracle League Charity Challenge and area youth lacrosse teams.

Commissioner’s Cup

The Commissioner’s Cup is determined by a scoring system under which athletic departments earn points for their teams’ performances in the league’s 17 sports both during the season and in the conference tournaments.

UAlbany earned 411 total points, well ahead of runners-up Stony Brook, with 333, and New Hampshire, with 280.

During the 2017-18 school year, UAlbany won the league tournaments in men’s soccer, women’s indoor track, men’s lacrosse, men’s outdoor track, women’s outdoor track and softball. Men’s indoor track and women’s lacrosse were runners up in their league championships, while field hockey, volleyball, men’s lacrosse and softball all won regular-season titles.

UAlbany first won the Commissioner’s Cup in the 2004-05 school year and has captured each since 2012-13.

Helping hands

Two other student-athletes, Tara Belinsky (women’s track & field) and Kyle Gronostaj (men’s track & field), were recognized at the banquet, being named as members of the America East Helping Hands Team.

The Helping Hands Team, now in its fifth year, was established to recognize a male and female student-athlete from each of the nine America East schools for their exemplary efforts in the area of community services while remaining in good academic standing.

Belinsky, a Presidential Honor Society member who earned her bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and Communication in May, was UAlbany’s Student Athlete Advisory Council President, the America East SAAC Representative and a member of the America East Alumni Advisory Panel. She performed more than 100 hours of community service, organizing bi-weekly efforts for student-athletes to volunteer with children and helping begin the UAlbany Student-Athlete Mental Health Mentor Program, among other endeavors.

Gronostaj, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, was a UAlbany SAAC Representative who was part of the UAlbany and America East’s “Spread Respect” initiatives. He also volunteered for the Capital Area Council of Churches Mobile Lunch Program and was a recipient of the East Greenbush First United Methodist Church Community Service Scholarship.

Gronostaj and Belinsky both won SUNY Scholar-Athlete Awards this spring.

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