Feb. 1, 2012
Overland Park, Kan. – Senior defenseman Sean Lorenz (Littleton, Colo.) is one of 10 Division I college hockey players to be selected as a finalist for the 2011-12 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The award honors student athletes who excel both on and off the ice and has notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Joining Lorenz on the list of hockey finalists are: Chad Billins (Ferris State), Jack Connolly (Minnesota-Duluth), Sean Duddy (Ohio State), Ryan Flanigan (Merrimack), Scott Greenham (University of Alaska), Jack Mclellan (Brown), Cody Reichard (Miami), Keir Ross (Cornell) and Paul Weisgarger (Air Force).
The finalists were chosen by a media committee from the list of 20 candidates that were announced in October. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to determine the winner. Fans are encouraged to vote via Lowe’s Senior CLASS award website (www.seniorclassaward.com) or on the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award Facebook fan page through March 18. Fan votes will be combined with media and coaches’ votes to determine the winner.
Lowe’s, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announce the winner April 7 at the NCAA Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla.
Lorenz has played a key role on the Notre Dame defense his entire four seasons with the Irish and as a senior serves as one of the team’s captains. Through 28 games in 2011-12, he is tied for second among the team’s defensemen with three goals and 10 assists for 13 points. The Irish are currently ranked sixth in the nation with a 15-10-3 overall mark and are battling for one of the top spots in the CCHA.
The rugged, stay-at-home defenseman is coming off his best year at Notre Dame in 2010-11 when he helped the Irish to a trip to the NCAA Frozen Four. As a junior, Lorenz had career highs in goals (4), assists (11) and points (15) and had one short-handed goal and two game winners while being +33 for the year. He was named the CCHA’s top defensive defenseman of the year and was the winner of Notre Dame’s William Donald Nyrop Award as the team’s top defensive player.
Off the ice, Lorenz has a 3.412 grade-point average in finance in the Mendoza College of Business and oversees the Irish hockey team’s community service efforts while being the team’s liaison to the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
The Littleton, Colorado native becomes the sixth Notre Dame hockey player to make the list of 10 finalists in the six-year history of the award. In 2006-07, goaltender David Brown `07, was a finalist and went on to win the honor. Since then, Mark Van Guilder `08, Erik Condra `09, Jordan Pearce `09 and Calle Ridderwall `11 have all made the finalist list.