Men's Lacrosse | 5/24/2022 2:05:00 PM
TROY, N.Y. - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athletes Lilli Friis-Hansen and
Cooper Urban are among the student-athletes who have been chosen to the 2021-22 Academic All-District Men's and Women's At-Large Teams, as selected by CoSIDA. Friis-Hansen, a senior, was named to the NCAA Division I District I squad, while Urban, also a senior, garnered recognition on the NCAA Division III District III team. Both are now eligible for National All-America consideration.
A forward on the ice hockey team, Friis-Hansen (Lyngby, Denmark / Gentofte HK) is coming off a season in which she had six assists with a +5 rating and 13 blocked shots in 19 games. She also competed for Team Denmark in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, notching an assist in four games after helping her country qualify for the Olympics at the 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship.
In 89 career games for the Engineers, she has two goals and eight assists.
Friis-Hansen earned an undergraduate degree in business and management in December of 2021 with a cumulative grade point average of 3.97. Formerly an intern with Team Danmark (the Danish public institution for the support of elite athletes), she is currently working on a Masters of Business Administration degree at RPI. During her tenure in Troy, she has been a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and an inductee into three honor societies: Epsilon Delta Sigma (management), Beta Gamma Sigma (international business) and Olympia (Rensselaer Athletics).
An assistant captain, Friis-Hansen is a three-time ECAC Hockey All-Academic honoree, a three-time ECAC Hockey Commissioner's List selection and a conference Student-Athlete of the Year finalist once. She is also an American Collegiate Hockey Association All-American Scholar and a three-time recipient of the team's Bob Conway Scholar Athlete award. She is also active in the community, having volunteered with area learn-to-skate programs as well as with Girls, Inc.
Urban (Glen Mills, PA / Salesianum School), an attack on the lacrosse team, was a biology and economics dual major with a 3.95 cumulative GPA who will be attending medical school at Cornell University in the fall. While at Rensselaer, he was an Alzheimer's disease researcher in the Hurley Lab and he conducted clinical trials research on Alzheimer's. Additionally, he worked as an associate with a Pfizer Vaccine Global Regulatory and as a volunteer in the Wyoming County Community Hospital Radiology Department.
The vice president of the RPI Science Ambassadors and a chemistry and organic chemistry mentor, Urban was published as an author of "Circadian control of heparin sulfate levels times phagocytosis of amyloid beta aggregates" in February 2022. He was also honored with a McKinney Writing Contest award in 2021. Urban also spent time as a Power Lunch Literacy Mentor.
On the field, he helped this year's team to an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament and a 10-6 overall record. He had 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points in 16 games, all starts. He was first on the team in assists and second in points. Urban also had 15 ground balls and four caused turnovers.
In 39 career games, he scored 70 goals with 45 assists for 115 points. He was Rensselaer's Male Freshman Athlete of the Year in 2018-19, the Liberty League Rookie of the Year in 2019 and inducted into Olympia last month.
