ROCK ISLAND -- Citing a small roster size, injuries and health and safety concerns, the Augustana men's lacrosse program will suspend competition for the remainder of the 2025 season.

"Following multiple conversations with our athletic trainers and medical staff, we have made the difficult but prudent decision to suspend competition for the remainder of the 2025 men's lacrosse season," said Michael Zapolski, Director of Athletics. "Augustana has made a good faith effort to avoid this scenario, but a variety of circumstances have created the reality that playing games is not sustainable for our program this spring."

Augustana played three early-season contests before taking a two-week competition pause on March 4 with the intention of resuming play on March 22 with two road games during the College's upcoming spring break.

"In the moment, I feel terrible for Coach Thornton and the young men on our current roster who have stuck it out through a tremendous amount of adversity," said Zapolski. "Clearly, this is not the desired outcome for the Augustana men's lacrosse program, but, the circumstances in play dictated this decision. We determined to share this news now so our future opponents—particularly our conference colleagues—could make appropriate plans and perhaps add a game to their respective schedules."

The current team members will continue to train through the end of April and also be engaged in strength and conditioning workouts.

"Augustana is fully committed to sponsoring men's lacrosse as a varsity sport," said Zapolski. "We have a lot to offer a prospective men's lacrosse recruit—an opportunity to play immediately at a school with an outstanding academic reputation, boasts a quality venue and competes in the strongest conference in the Midwest. I am confident that Coach Thornton can build back our roster size to 35-40 student-athletes after a few recruiting cycles."

Augustana began sponsoring men's lacrosse in the spring of 2012. The Vikings were regular season CCIW tri-champions in 2016, and won the conference tournament in 2015 to secure its first-ever berth to the NCAA Championship.

"We deeply regret that our men's lacrosse competitive season is coming to an early end," added President Andrea Talentino. "We are proud of our athletic commitments and success and hate to impact our student-athletes and conference in this way. But I know Coach Thornton, Athletic Director Zapolski and our players are making the right decision to set the team up for future success and I'm confident men's lacrosse will emerge stronger and ready to compete next season."