Lakewood, Ohio – The Wittenberg men's and women's lacrosse teams headed up north last Sunday for the 2017 Crosse Out Cancer! College Lacrosse Showcase For the benefit of Breast Cancer Research. Burning River Lacrosse, Cleveland Clinic, Renegade Brands, Signature Lacrosse, and Athena Lacrosse brought together 18 teams from NCAA DII and DIII at the Johnson Controls Hall of Fall Village Sports Complex. This year's event would see 22 games played on Sunday, Oct. 8 as over $20,000 was raised for breast cancer research.
Wittenberg would take on Lake Erie College and Seton Hill in their two games of the day, giving men's head coach Jay Owen some quality game looks with his team in the non-traditional season, while the weekend was about more than just what happened between the lines.
"Anytime you can partner athletics alongside a great cause, it is a win-win. It also helps you keep things in perspective on how fortunate we are to be part of college athletics," Owen said.
This year's event raised over $23,000 for the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program at Cleveland Clinic, and has surpassed $150,000 in the last eight years. Sunday was made possible by a strong group effort that included 1,971 fans, players, and volunteers in attendance throughout the day. Event revenues were generated through sponsorships, donations, t-shirt and sweatshirt sales, ticket sales, and food truck sales and through fundraising efforts of the participating teams themselves. The funds raised will support the program's goal to advance research in breast cancer.
"We really appreciate everyone who came out to support this year's fund raiser and made this a great day for the Northern Ohio lacrosse community," stated Woody Calleri, Director of BR Lax "We are thrilled to have exceeded our fundraising and attendance goals of $20,000 and 1,500 attendees."
"On behalf of the Cleveland Clinic, The Burning River Lacrosse family, Athena Lacrosse, the college participants and our program sponsor's we would like to thank everyone who donated, attended or volunteered their time to help make the event a huge success," stated Calleri "Building on this year's success, we have already begun planning for 2018 and look to expand the number of teams participating and the amount raised in support of breast cancer research."