Why Cornell Legends Believe CJ Kirst Can Lead Them Back to the Promised Land

Cornell ascended to No. 1 in the rankings Monday.

The Big Red would prefer to be No. 1 on the final Monday of the season.

It’s been 48 years since Cornell last won the NCAA men’s lacrosse championship, but in that time the proud Ivy League program has produced two Tewaaraton Award winners, 21 first-team All-Americans and plenty of contending teams.

“We’ve been on the doorstep,” said Mike French, Cornell’s all-time leading scorer who was part of the 1976 team that won the school’s second national title and is considered one of the best NCAA teams ever.

The Big Red won again in 1977 after French graduated. Eamon McEneaney had three goals and five assists in the 16-8 title game romp over Johns Hopkins as Cornell became the first team ever to repeat as national champions.

McEneaney had also played on the football team and at 5-foot-10 was an athletic freak capable of reverse dunking a basketball with two hands. He died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. His No. 10 jersey is one of two retired by Cornell along with the No. 21 of George Boiardi, whose 2004 death on the field after being struck by a ball in a game was equally defining and unifying for the Big Red.

“We've had some epic leaders of the program and some really tragic losses that have brought guys even closer together,” said Mitch Belisle, a 2007 Cornell graduate and former U.S. Men’s National Team player. “It's just like a true lacrosse family.”

The family has tuned in to see Cornell reach the final four nine times since 1977, and alumni have watched those that followed them chase a national championship with a mix of pride, anguish, heartbreak and empathy.

“I don't sit down and watch the whole game because my stomach gets all turned up and nuts like when I was playing,” Belisle said. “It's almost better for me to keep an arm's distance and just cheer as I check in on the score. But it's a great way to just keep everyone united and keep talking about the thing we love, which is Cornell lacrosse.”

Belisle was on the last Cornell team ranked No. 1. That was in May 2007, after the Big Red finished the regular season 13-0. An overtime win over Albany in the NCAA quarterfinals sent Cornell to championship weekend for the first time since 1988. But after Brian Clayton scored with 17 seconds left to bring the Big Red all the way back from a 10-3 third-quarter deficit, Duke scored with three seconds left to end the season of one of the best Big Red teams at 15-1.

As much as it hurt, Belisle said, nothing compares to the devastation the Big Red faithful felt two years later. “That was just so close and so painful,” he said.

The 2009 Cornell team had a freshman phenom in Rob Pannell and the Tewaaraton Award winner in Max Seibald. The Big Red ripped Virginia in the NCAA semifinals at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., to land in their first national title game in 21 years. John Glynn (three goals and two assists) and Seibald (two goals) helped stake Cornell to a 9-6 lead over Syracuse with less than four minutes to go.

But the Orange rallied with three straight goals, the last coming with 4.5 seconds left in regulation set up by a late turnover and the “Foxborough Flip” from Matt Abbott to Kenny Nims to force overtime. Syracuse completed the comeback as Cody Jamieson scored to deliver a crushing 10-9 loss to Cornell.

“It’s just indescribable,” then-Big Red head coach Jeff Tambroni said at the time. “You put so much time and effort in. You sacrifice so much from your own families and these guys from their social lives. Knowing that they were five seconds away from being the best team in college lacrosse, that’s a tough one to swallow.”

Tambroni left after taking Cornell back to the final four the next season — one in which the Big Red started 7-1 before losses in three of the last five regular-season games and the Ivy League tournament final sowed doubt. They fought their way to the semifinals with a young squad that inspired hope they’d be back. It wasn’t until 2013, however, that Cornell made it back to championship weekend under then-head coach Ben DeLuca.

“I remember having that sense of urgency, knowing in the back of my head if we don't win here, then that's it,” said Pannell, who was a fifth-year senior and that year’s Tewaaraton Award winner. “It gets emotional.”

Pannell had five goals and two assists and current Cornell coach Connor Buczek’s third goal brought the Big Red within a score with 53 seconds left, but Duke ended the rally and their title hopes with a 16-14 semifinal win.

Pannell sees comparisons between himself and CJ Kirst, Cornell’s senior captain and this year’s Tewaaraton frontrunner. Both played in national finals as freshmen. Seeded seventh in 2022, the Big Red had a mix of veterans along with Kirst and his talented freshman class when they advanced to the national championship game where they rallied but ultimately fell 9-7 to Maryland, a program that went 42 years between titles before winning in 2017.

“I was fortunate enough to go back to the final four again,” Pannell said. “He hasn't been back yet, but I know that's definitely on his mind, something that he wants to accomplish. To bring a championship back to Ithaca is something that's talked about, and I'm sure that's something that's on his mind to do because no one's been able to do it.”

Kirst and his classmates are seniors now. Given their core experience, the depth of talent, a respected coaching staff and the 6-1 start that might be 7-0 were it not for a late collapse against Penn State, there is optimism that this is the year the national title drought will end.

“I do feel really, really positive not as much because of the scores, but more so the leadership that they have and how these guys play for each other,” French said.

Buczek and associate head coach Jordan Stevens were teammates and 2015 Cornell graduates. They understand as much as anyone what their players are going through, and they foster pride in the program.

“Coach Buczek and Coach Stevens, they just have a confidence about them,” Pannell said. “You can see that it penetrates to the team — that same confidence that we can play with anyone, that we belong here.”

There’s leadership on the field too. The heart and soul of the team is Kirst, who earlier this season surpassed French as the all-time leading goal scorer in Cornell history.

“You’ve got the best player on the planet,” French said. “And by the way, it's not even close.”

Kirst leads the country in both points (7.14) and goals (5.29) per game coming off a masterful nine-goal, one-assist, two-caused turnover showing in a 19-14 win over Yale. It was the fourth time this season he’s posted six or more goals in a game.

“What you don't see, and what some people don't watch necessarily, is what he does in the ride, how he celebrates his teammates, the energy that he plays with from start to finish, how happy guys are celebrating him, how happy he is celebrating other guys,” Pannell said. “He's a leader in every sense of the word. And he doesn't lead just by his play. He leads by everything else that you'd want a leader to do.”

With 202 career goals, Kirst is 22 shy of the NCAA record set by Virginia’s Payton Cormier last year.

“He can lead us to the promised land,” said Tim Goldstein, a 1998 Cornell graduate and National Lacrosse Hall of Fame member. He likened Kirst’s potential impact to that of Ben Reeves, who willed Yale to the NCAA championship in 2018. “They play the best and bring everybody's level up.”

Goldstein watches now as not just a decorated alum who helped Cornell to back-to-back NCAA finals appearances in 1987 and 1988 — he was team MVP in 1987 after setting what was then an NCAA record with 73 assists — but also as a parent. His son, Ryan Goldstein, is a sophomore on attack with Kirst and Michael Long. The younger Goldstein has taken a big step forward in his game and looks more and more like his dad. He ranks third in the country with 3.29 assists per game. No one should overlook Long either.

Together they’ve made Cornell the No. 2 scoring offense (16.14 goals per game) in the country. (VMI is No. 1.) They haven’t been held under a dozen goals yet heading into Saturday’s game against visiting Penn. Their offensive efficiency (38.6 percent) also ranks second nationally (behind Notre Dame).

They’re also getting more possessions thanks to the return of faceoff specialist Jack Cascadden from an injury that cost him most of last year. The junior is winning 56.3 percent of faceoffs.

“We've always had an issue with faceoffs, and that has actually been a strength this year,” Belisle said. “When you're getting that many possessions for an offense that's that good, good things happen. That might be one of the biggest difference makers this year, how strong their faceoff unit is. It's not just one guy, it's the whole unit.”

And behind a solid defense is a senior goalie, Wyatt Knust, who is saving 56.4 percent, just outside the top 20 nationally.

“You need guys to step up at the right times, and Cornell just seems to have guys stepping up at the right time right now,” Pannell said. “Hopefully we can just sustain this into the end of May.”

Of course, it’s always dangerous to look that far ahead. There’s the second half of the regular season and the Ivy League tournament before Selection Sunday and the NCAA tournament.

“They don't hand out trophies for being No. 1 in mid-March,” Buczek said.

And while there’s plenty of optimism in Cornell circles, there is also acknowledgement of just how tough it is. Cornell was one of four teams that received No. 1 votes in this week’s USILA coaches poll.

“My universal theme to all those guys is to have confidence and to get better,” Goldstein said. “If they're getting better and they ride that wave, I think they have a good shot to be in the mix for a final four. And once you get to the final four, you never know.”

French, who attended Kirst’s record-breaking game at Schoellkopf Field and congratulated him afterward, recognizes ending the NCAA title drought is the ultimate goal.

“More than anything, I'd like to see these guys experience a national championship,” he said. “They've experienced Cornell, which is just a great, wonderful experience. It doesn't stop once you graduate. It continues with the career paths that Cornell and Cornell alumni set you up for. But I really want them to experience being a national champion.”

Matt Hamilton contributed to this article.