June 6, 2002

Notre Dame, Ind. – Recent Notre Dame graduates John Flandina (West Islip, N.Y.) and A.J. Wright (Timonium, Md.) have been chosen to play in the 2002 Division I Unites States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s (USILA) annual North/South All-Star game. The 61st annual event will be played on Saturday, June 8 at 3:00 p.m. at Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood Field.

Both Flandina and Wright will play for the South squad which will be Fred Acee of Air Force and Don Zimmerman of Maryland-Baltimore County. The North team will be coached by Jack Kaley of New York Institute of Technology and Greg Canella of Massachusetts.

Wright, a two-time first-team Great Western Lacrosse League honoree, became the 12th different Notre Dame men’s lacrosse player and fourth defenseman to earn USILA/STX All-America honors as an honorable mention selection. He was the only player on the ’02 13-member GWLL all-conference team to repeat as a first-team honoree. One of four captains for the Irish this past season, he started all 13 games and was third on the Notre Dame squad with 31 ground balls. A three-year starter, Wright started the final 43 games of his collegiate career, played in 45 contests overall and collected 82 career ground balls.

Flandina, a first-team GWLL selection in the midfield after earning second-team honors folloiwng his junior year, capped off his final campaign in an Irish uniform by tying for team-high scoring honors in ’02 with 10 goals and a personal best 15 assists for 25 points. He played in all 57 games during his four-year career and finished with 44 goals and 32 assists (76 points).

Notre Dame shared the Great Western Lacrosse League regular-season title this past season with Fairfield as the Irish finished with a 4-1 mark in league play and 5-8 overall.