NAPERVILLE, ILL.—The Carthage College men's lacrosse team duplicated last season's regular-season finish on the 2019 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Preseason Coaches' Poll on Wednesday afternoon, where they found themselves in the #3 spot with 27 points. Defending CCIW Regular Season and Tournament Champion Illinois Wesleyan University claimed the top spot on the poll with 36 points and six first-place votes, followed by Elmhurst College's second-place mark of 30 points and one first-place vote.
 
"We return a lot of young talent with four freshmen starters from last season now having a year under their belt in Brody Ilstrup, Samuel Yokobosky, Liam O'Connor and Colin Poitras," said Red Men head lacrosse coach David Neff. "Our offense will be led by NCAA career points leader Andy Szun and given a charge by Limestone standout Noah Lindner. While the end goal is to compete for the CCIW Championship, right now we are focused on the Calvin game."
 
The 2019 Red Men roster consists of 28 returners and 11 newcomers.
 
Back for the Red Men are the top four scorers from last season in Andy Szun, Brody Ilstrup, Colin Poitras and Ethan Flight. Szun, who carries 231 career points, is 28 points shy of tying the Red Men career record of 259 set by Danny Morse (2011-14). Szun also holds Red Men career records in goals (165), goals per game (2.80) and shots on goal (198). His 104 points, 75 goals, 5.47 points per game, 3.95 goals per game, 131 shots on goal and 6.89 shots on goal per game in 2018 were all single-season records.
 
Sophomore Noah Lindner, who was named the Conference Carolinas Freshman of the Year with Limestone College last season, will add scoring punch to the Red Men lineup.
 
Junior Joe Poremba returns leading the defense with 42 caused turnovers last season, while Griffin Cleary is Carthage's returning face-off specialist with a 57-of-103 (.553) mark in the circle last season.
 
Sophomore goalkeeper Zerik Rodriguez started all 19 games for the Red Men last season. Freshmen Sam Kotsonas and Kyle Guthrie will join Rodriguez in Carthage's goalkeeping group.
 
Filling holes left from six seniors last season are newcomers Noah Lindner, Max Buskey, Nick Driggs, Sam Kotsonas, Jack Ney, Sam Geller, Jake Gronowski, Hayden Fischer, Kyle Guthrie, Jack Carter and Jack Savini.
 
Szun, Flight, Lindner and Poremba will serve as the Red Men team captains in 2018.
 
Carthage will open their 2018 season this coming Saturday, February 9 at Calvin College for a 1:00 p.m. (ET) start, and will kick-off their home schedule on Wednesday, February 27 against Milwaukee School of Engineering at 3:00 p.m.