Five will represent Marquette at the World Lacrosse Championships

MILWAUKEE Current and former Marquette University men’s lacrosse players Luke BlancJP Henry, Jared Hershman, Liam Byrnes and Jacob Richard all suit up for the 2023 World Men’s Lacrosse Championship June 21-July 1 in San Diego.

Byrnes (2012-16) and Richard (2013-16) were named to the U.S. roster on Dec. 20 and will make their first appearance at the World Lacrosse Championships. Hershman (2017-20) competed with Puerto Rico in the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship, while Blanc (2022-pre.) and Henry, an incoming freshman, will make their tournament debuts.

Championship pools with MU connections:
Pool A Australia, Canada, England, Haudenosaunee, United States (Byrnes and Richard)
Pool B Denmark, France (Blanc), Japan, Uganda, Wales
Pool C Czech Republic, Israel, Philippines, Puerto Rico (Hershman), Sweden
Pool F Ireland, Korea, Latvia, Netherlands, Peru (Henry)

The 30 teams that qualified for the event have been divided into six groups of five, of which the five best countries are in Pool A. The top two teams from Pool A advance directly to the quarter-finals, while the remaining three teams from Pool A join the top nine teams from Pool BF (five first and four second-placed) in the first round of the playoffs on June 27 to determine the remaining teams in the quarter-finals, which begin on June 28. , the shape and progression of the pool game can be foundhere.

All 107 games of the event will be available on ESPN+ in addition to six linear televised games, beginning on Wednesday, June 21 with the USA vs. Canada matchup at 9:00 PM Central Time on ESPN2. The tournament semifinals on June 29 and the gold medal game on July 1 will also be televised on ESPN2.

San Diego State’s 32,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium will host opening and closing ceremonies, the opening game between the USA and Canada, the tournament semifinals and medal games. The University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium (cap. 6,000) hosts most games, while the remaining contests are played on SDSU’s campus.

The United States will host the event for the fourth time and the first time since 2014, when the Americans lost the gold medal to Canada in Denver. Team USA is the reigning world champion after winning gold in Israel in 2018 and has finished first or second in every world championship since 1967.

Liam Byrnes Team USA (pool A)

Byrnes established himself as one of the best long pole players in the world and was selected for the USA roster as a long-suffering midfielder. The two-time second-team All-PLL defenseman captured a gold medal with Team USA in the six-league competition at the 2022 World Games in Alabama and was the 2019 Major League Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Year.

Byrnes was a USILA Second Team All-American in her senior season at Marquette in 2016 and holds the MU program record for caused turnovers and ground balls. He also became the first former MU men’s lacrosse player to earn induction into the Marquette M Club Hall of Fame in 2022.

He currently plays professionally for the Waterdogs LC in PLL, who he helped to the 2022 PLL Championship, and the Panther City Lacrosse Club in the National Lacrosse League.

Jacob Richard Team USA (Pool A)

Richard is currently an assistant coach at MU and plays professionally for Atlas LC in PLL. One of four defensive midfielders on Team USA, he is making his first appearance for the American national team. Richard, along with Byrnes and former MU teammate BJ Grill, had been on Team USA’s practice roster, but had not played in an international event. Richard had previously appeared with Team USA in the MLL All-Star Game and the Fall Classic.

He was a USILA Third Team All-American as a senior in 2016 as the Golden Eagles earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament in the program’s fourth season.

Jared Hershman Team Puerto Rico (pool C)

Hershman played four years with the Golden Eagles from 2017-20 and had a career-best 100 starts as a junior in 2019 with a .526 (100/190) slugging percentage and 52 ground balls. The native of Cortlandt Manor, New York also played for Team Puerto Rico at the 2018 event.

Luke Blanc French team (Pool B)

Blanc completed his second season with the Golden Eagles in the spring of 2023 as the team’s third scorer with 18 goals and was fifth in points with 21 goals. He started the final 10 games of the year in midfield and scored multiple goals in four. of his last six races.

Blanc has 34 goals in 29 career games played after earning a redshirt during his true freshman campaign at UMass in 2021.

JP Henry Team Peru (pool F)

Henry signed with the Golden Eagles out of Pittsburgh’s Shady Side Academy last fall as a scorer. He set school and WPIAL records with 88 goals as a junior in 2022 after first breaking the school scoring record with 77 as a sophomore. The right-handed shooter will report to campus this summer along with high school teammate Ethan Salvia after four years of eligibility. Henry’s mother, Dr. Claudia Henry, was born in Peru.

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