Senior Profile: John Uppgren and Conor Helfrich

In January, graduating seniors co-captain John Uppgren and Conor Helfrich became the first Tufts lacrosse players ever drafted in the Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft, a testament to their prolific careers.

Uppgren started off contributing his first year and has since then carried Tufts' offense — consistently one of the best in the nation. In a powerhouse program that rarely sees significant contributions from first-years, let alone places them in the starting lineup, Uppgren stood out from his first season. He started three games as a first-year, scoring 23 goals and assisting 11, ranking fifth on the team in points scored. In his sophomore year, he netted the most points for Tufts with 124, leading the team with 59 assists and coming in third on the team with 65 goals. This impressive offensive output earned Uppgren a place on the NESCAC All-Conference First Team, a notable achievement for such a young collegiate player.

Helfrich, meanwhile, was sidelined his first season due to a serious injury sustained during the ice hockey season, but he started strong in his sophomore year and rose to become one of the best face-off specialists in the country across all divisions. He dominated the face-off position his sophomore season, winning 331 of 551 face-offs, and established himself as the best at the face-off position in the NESCAC, earning him a spot on the NESCAC All-Conference First team. The 2014 sophomore season saw the team not only winning another NESCAC title but becoming NCAA Div. III champions as well.

In a similarly impressive junior season, both players again were leading contributors to a team that would win another NESCAC Championship and a second consecutive NCAA title. Uppgren was the top goal and points scorer for both Tufts and the NESCAC.Helfrich improved his face-off percentage to 65 percent, winning 359 of 552. This once again ranked him as the best face-off player in the NESCAC. Both Uppgren and Helfrich were named to the All-Conference First Team for a second time.

The two Jumbos went into their senior seasons earlier this spring with high expectations for another national championship, with Uppgren named as a senior co-captain. Neither player disappointed expectations, as Uppgren again led both Tufts and the NESCAC in goals and points scored, taking over as the top scorer in Tufts lacrosse history early last month. He earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors twice this season and was named the NESCAC Player of the Year.

Helfrich has continued his reign at the face-off position this spring, securing Tufts the attacking possessions they needed to win each game. As of May 11, he had won 310 of 504 face-offs in the 2016 season, good for an impressive 61 percent win rate.

Both players cited the back-to-back national championships as the highlight of their Tufts career, with both saying that spending time with the team outside of practices and games will be their fondest memories.

“The legacy that we’re hoping to leave behind as a senior class is that we took the program farther than it had been when we came into it,” Uppgren said. “Hopefully this year it will be, reaching another national championship and winning another one. Making sure that hard work, giving back and contributing to the community, working hard every day and loving lacrosse, that we’ve built upon those standards, and set the bar even higher than when we found it as freshmen.”