VESTAL, N.Y. – The 21 Binghamton varsity teams took part in the Third Annual Athletics Alumni Giving Challenge, competing against each other to raise funds for their sports and the athletics department. The campaign was held Sept. 10-30 and the results were announced during the Homecoming Tailgate on Saturday afternoon.

The Athletics Alumni Giving Challenge was made possible by the generosity of William H. Groner '77, who sponsored the event. The goal of the competition was to increase participation among former Binghamton student-athletes who contribute to the Athletics Department.

The sport with the highest percentage of athletics alumni making a gift received $5,000 towards their program. For the third consecutive year, the men's lacrosse team was honored with a first-place percentage of 48.33.

"A huge thanks goes out to our alumni group who have continued to support our program at a high level after their time on campus," head men's lacrosse coach Kevin McKeown said. "Our alumni are invested not only on a financial level, but truly care about the present and future success of our student-athletes.  I look forward to continuing to build the already strong relationship with past and present members of the Binghamton Men's Lacrosse program. "

In addition, the sport with the highest number of donors also received $5,000. The wrestling program, with 137 donors, received the inaugural award.

"Our alumni are incredible," head wrestling coach Kyle Borshoff said. "The amount of support that they gave shows how much they care about the success of our program. This marked our best year ever in the Alumni Giving Challenge and I look forward to having even more at our past wrestlers participate next year. I hope to see all who donated to the program and more at our 50th anniversary celebration in November.

There were 779 gifts received as part of the Alumni Giving Challenge, which is an increase of 239 donors from 2017.

"We are grateful to the generous athletics alumni who once again contributed during the giving challenge." Deputy Director of Athletics Dennis Kalina said. "This event brought together alumni from seven decades who showed their passion and pride in order to assist the current generation of student-athletes. We sincerely appreciate the generosity of these individuals."

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