Shane Epstein-Petrullo, who helped The College of Wooster men's lacrosse team to the winningest season in program history, was voted a third-team College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American®, as announced by the organization on Wednesday afternoon.
"Shane is the epitome of the term student-athlete," shared Eric Seideman, Wooster's head coach. "Shane is an amazingly conscientious student and an exceptionally dedicated athlete. He is deeply invested in his academic performance, involved on campus, and is an engaged leader on our lacrosse team. He is highly deserving of this honor, and we can't wait to see what his senior year will bring."
Epstein-Petrullo entered 15 games as an offensive and transition midfielder this spring and helped Wooster to a 13-4 record, with the wins marking a new program record. Wooster strung together a program-record 11-game winning streak at the year's onset, and the Fighting Scots were one of the final four remaining undefeated teams within NCAA Div. III. The junior scooped up 13 groundballs, helping Wooster to a top-three national ranking at 45 team groundballs per game. Epstein-Petrullo scored a career-high five goals and assisted on four others. His offensive outputs were headlined by a two-goal night at the University of Mount Union, a game where Wooster matched the program's then-longest winning streak at nine games.
A 2022 summer internship at Schneider Electric headlined the statistical and data sciences major's off-field credentials as of the time of nomination. There, Epstein-Petrullo worked with data scientists to select the most important variables to predict energy demand. On campus, he tutors Wooster students in calculus courses and works with local elementary and high school students as a mathematics tutor in a variety of courses. Epstein-Petrullo's research work includes studying pests in agricultures, teaching certain entities about a rapidly-growing data-filled world, and work analyzing the men's lacrosse team's shooting data from games and practices.
Elsewhere, Epstein-Petrullo is president of the student data club organization, assists first-year seminar courses as a teaching assistant, and is a play-by-play commentator for soccer and volleyball livestreams.
Epstein-Petrullo's Academic All-America® selection marks the third for the men's lacrosse program and the first since two-time Academic All-American® Ryan Story was a 2009 and 2010 honoree. Overall, 62 Wooster student-athletes have been selected for the prestigious honor, including 10 in the last two academic years. Epstein-Petrullo is Wooster's fourth honoree for the 2022-23 academic year, marking the sixth time the College has had at least four selections in a year.