Defending a Title: Looking at Cornell's Incoming Class

For the first time since 1977, the Cornell Big Red brought a national championship trophy back to Ithaca, toppling Maryland in Monday's title game.    Led by Tewaaraton favorite CJ Kirst, the NCAA's all-time leading goal scorer, and an outstanding 16-man senior class, the Big Red finished the season 18-1 and avenged its only blemish — a loss to Penn State — in Saturday's semifinals.    As the Big Red turns the page to the 2026 season, there will be a host of new faces. Given the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Cornell's senior class was bigger than usual and wildly talented, not to mention incredibly experienced, as 13 of the 16 seniors played in the 2022 national championship game.    Cornell's high-flying offense ranked No. 1 in Division I with an average of 15.89 goals per game, and heading into 2026, the Big Red will graduate two of the top six, with Kirst, Michael Long, Hugh Kelleher, and Andrew Dalton all set to move on. Willem Firth, the Canadian lefty and Second Team All-American who posted 35 goals and 17 assists out of the midfield, is expected to bump down to attack, and second-line middies Brian Luzzi and Ryan Waldman are favorites to move on to the top midfield unit.   Of course, high school rankings and accolades guarantee absolutely nothing at the college level, where everything is earned. However, it's hard to envision a five-star attackman [player_tooltip player_id='123038' first='Rowyn' last='Nurry'] not being a member of Cornell's top six a year from now. <a href="https://preplacrosse.com/2025/05/late-season-big-board-class-of-2025-attackmen/">Highlighted last week as one of the headliners of the Top 30 players at the position</a>, Nurry is coming off of a brilliant postgrad season at Loomis Chaffee (Conn.) following a phenomenal career with Delaware power Salesianum School. "Nurry has developed as well as any attackman in the class, going from an under-the-radar '24 recruit to one of the very best offensive prospects in the country. He's been on an absolute tear as a postgrad at Loomis, where he's shown a penchant for taking over games with his outside shot and dodging prowess. Nurry has a full bag of tricks with the ball in his stick and makes his teammates better with his play. With multiple Big Red starters set to graduate later this month, Nurry could make an instant impact and settle in for years to come."   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPTUQdGRXEw </div></figure>   Coming in as one of two attack prospects for the Big Red, Peyton Booth took a gap year following his career at St. Anne's Belfield (Va.) and will bring a unique skill set to Ithaca in the fall. A member of the Toronto Beaches alongside Firth in the summer, Booth is highly accomplished as a box standout, posting 14 points through three games so far this season. Blessed with superb hands and wrists, he has quite a nose for the goal and is highly capable as both a dodger and a shooter. With his tantalizing skill set, it'll be interesting to see how his career turns out, whether he's used as a complementary attackman or deployed running out of the box.   A wealth of midfield reinforcements are Ithaca-bound, both on the offensive end and athletes who fit the bill as SSDMs. Holderness (N.H.) offensive midfielder [player_tooltip player_id='14551' first='Grady' last='Taylor'], who checked in as the 11th middie in the Late Season Big Board, is undoubtedly the big name there. Famously committing to the Big Red minutes after midnight on 9/1, the Maine product will be expected to fight for a role on one of Cornell's top two midfield lines and looks every bit of a multi-year starter.   The highest-rated midfield recruit to head to Ithaca in quite some time, Taylor is an explosive athlete with excellent two-handedness and an outstanding shot. Pittsburgh native [player_tooltip player_id='14587' first='Seamus' last='Riordan'] (Shady Side Academy, Pa.) is another middie who projects well at the next level. At 6'2, he's a big body who shoots it with a pretty release and has nice shake and a strong repertoire of moves up top. A number of defensive midfield prospects will join the roster, including a pair of stalwarts that have older brothers making an impact with the Big Red. A lefty, Marple Newtown (Pa.) senior [player_tooltip player_id='14563' first='Brian' last='Box'] is the most offensively-minded recruit of the four d-middies, having played a lot of attack during the spring. He's a stud athlete who is tough as nails and can make highly impactful plays in transition. [player_tooltip player_id='126197' first='Blake' last='Cascadden'] (Garden City, N.Y.) is a bigger body who switched to play LSM this year, so it will be intriguing to see whether he sticks with a pole or goes back to play SSDM. One of three Big 4 HHH '25s in the class, Matthew Swartz (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) could be a candidate on either side of the ball, as he can absolutely fly and has awesome skills. He's more of an unknown relative to his peers considering that he missed his recruiting summer due to injury, but he's a guy who the Cornell staff is rather high on and has the athletic profile to make an impact. On the defensive end of the field, longstick midfielder [player_tooltip player_id='14588' first='John' last='Rodehorst'] (La Salle Academy, R.I.) is the best of the crop and fits the way Cornell likes to play, given how much success its longpoles had putting the ball in the back of the net. He's long and rangy, can run all day, and is smooth off the ground. Set to add defensive depth, Logan Missett (La Salle, Pa.) and Jack Carroll (Malvern Prep, Pa.) are air traffic controllers down low and best fit as No. 2 and No. 3 options within a defense. In terms of specialists, [player_tooltip player_id='20925' first='Eli' last='Friedman'] (Belmont Hill, Mass.) is currently ranked No. 7 nationally at the face-off position and will enter the program with a remarkable body of work over the years. He's cerebral and technical on the draw, but is just as capable with the ball in his stick. He'll add to a deep unit that returns Jack Cascadden and rising sophomore Michael Melkonian. Going forward, the Big Red are set up well in goal, given that they return two former five-stars in Matthew Tully and Timmy Piacentini. However, [player_tooltip player_id='123218' first='Dominic' last='Veloso'] is another good one. Like Wyatt Knust, he's a Florida native who flipped from Penn to Cornell. While Veloso wasn't able to win Hill's starting job, he's an excellent ball-stopper who has performed at a high level during offseason events.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cornell's 2025 Recruiting Class</h2>   Peyton Booth, A, St. Anne's Belfield (Va.) / gap year   [player_tooltip player_id='14563' first='Brian' last='Box'], M, Marple Newtown (Pa.)    [player_tooltip player_id='126197' first='Blake' last='Cascadden'], M, Garden City (N.Y.)   Jack Carroll, D, Malvern Prep (Pa.)   [player_tooltip player_id='20925' first='Eli' last='Friedman'], F/O, Belmont Hill (Mass.)   Logan Missett, D, La Salle (Pa.) / IMG Academy (Fla.) PG   [player_tooltip player_id='123038' first='Rowyn' last='Nurry'], A, Salesianum (Del.) / Loomis Chaffee (Conn.) PG   [player_tooltip player_id='14587' first='Seamus' last='Riordan'], M, Shady Side Academy (Pa.)   [player_tooltip player_id='14588' first='John' last='Rodehorst'], LSM, La Salle Academy (R.I.)   Matthew Swartz, M, Wyoming Seminary (Pa.)   [player_tooltip player_id='14551' first='Grady' last='Taylor'], M, Holderness (N.H.)    [player_tooltip player_id='123218' first='Dominic' last='Veloso'], G, Gulliver Prep (Fla.) / Hill Academy (Ont.) PG

For the first time since 1977, the Cornell Big Red brought a national championship trophy back to Ithaca, toppling Maryland in Monday's title game.