The race for the Tewaaraton Trophy, lacrosse’s version of the Heisman, was thrown for a loop with Saturday’s losses by Duke and Virginia.

Why? Because that would seem to take Blue Devils senior attackman Ned Crotty and Cavaliers senior attackman Danny Glading out of the equation for the Tewaaraton. Since 2001, only two players whose teams did not capture the national title have claimed the Tewaaraton, and Matt Danowski propelled Duke to the championship final in 2007.

So where does that leave the Tewaaraton? Crotty still might have say in the final voting. He still leads the country in points with 78, and his 55 assists rank second on the Blue Devils’ all-time list. And Hofstra midfielder Doug Shanahan took home the Tewaaraton even though his Pride team lost to Syracuse in the 2001 quarterfinals.

So we’re probably looking at the two finalists still playing in Monday’s title game.

If Cornell pulls off another upset, senior midfielder Max Seibald would seem to be a shoo-in for the award considering what he has done for the Big Red program in his four years there.

If Syracuse becomes the first repeat champion since Princeton won three consecutive crowns between 1996 and 1998, senior midfielder Matt Abbott probably has a good shot just because of his overall versatility. But if senior attackman Kenny Nims explodes as he did in Saturday’s semifinal against the Blue Devils, expect a fair amount of outcry over Nims’ omission from the list of finalists.