Ben Gaebel
Women's Lacrosse - Interim Head Coach
Contact: bgaebel@clarkson.edu
Phone: 315-268-3743

Ben Gaebel is the acting head coach for the Golden Knights' Women's Lacrosse team, replacing Ally Burrows, who departed to seek other opportunities outside of athletics. Gaebel served as the team's head coach from 2013-2022. 

In his time as head coach, Gaebel set new standards of excellence for the Golden Knights, setting a single-season program record for victories in his first year with 11, and surpassing that mark with 12 wins in 2016, a total that was achieved again in both 2018 and 2019. The Golden Knights reached the league's postseason tournament in the very deep and competitive Liberty League in both 2018 and 2019.

Gaebel, who served as an interim co-head coach 2013, guided the Green and Gold to an 11-5 overall record that year. Clarkson, which placed four Golden Knights on the Liberty League All-Star team, narrowly missed out on a conference tournament berth, holding a 4-5 league mark. After two comparatively down seasons, the Golden Knights returned with another outstanding season in 2016, setting a program record with nine straight victories and compiling their first-ever winning record in Liberty League play (6-3). Ten more victories came in 2017, including another lengthy winning streak of eight games. Two wins in the final days of the regular season put the Golden Knights into the conference tournament for the first time in 2018, as the Knights went 12-6 overall and 6-4 in league play. Clarkson rallied from a slow start in 2019 to gain the third seed in the Liberty League Tournament and won its first ever playoff game at home against Rensselaer (13-11). Through nine seasons, Gaebel has earned 77 wins, nearly four times as many as any other coach in program history, and an overall winning percentage of .575.

A 2007 graduate of SUNY Cortland, Gaebel earned a myriad of awards as an all-star goaltender during his four-year career (2002-06) with the Red Dragons. In his senior campaign, the Carthage, NY native earned STX USILA All-America honors, was named ECAC Division III Goaltender of the Year and was a First-Team SUNYAC All-Conference selection while helping lead Cortland to the 2006 NCAA Division III National Title. Through the 2014 season, Gaebel ranked 21st all-time in goals against average in Division III, allowing only 6.96 goals per game. 

While working towards his master degree at Potsdam State, Gaebel served as an assistant coach for the Bears’ Men’s Lacrosse team from 2007-2011. He has also been involved as a director of several summer lacrosse camps. Gaebel also worked in Clarkson’s Admission office as an Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Admissions for two years.

Gaebel is married to his wife Jillian and the couple have two young sons.


Ariel Shweiki
Women's Lacrosse - Assistant Coach
Contact: shweika@clarkson.edu
Phone: 

Ariel Shweiki is entering her first season as the top assistant for the Golden Knights’ Women’s Lacrosse program for 2025-26.

A recent graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA, with a major in Cognitive Science, Shweiki was a four-year member of the Tigers’ women’s lacrosse program. The team’s slate of games for 2021 was cancelled due to COVID, but over the next three years, Shweiki played in 47 games, making 40 starts. Over that time, she accumulated 26 goals and 12 assists for 38 points on offense. She also contributed another 51 groundballs, caused 18 turnovers, and gained possession on 27 draw controls.

Shweiki already has coached at a few different levels, serving as the head coach for True Belles Lacrosse, a youth club program in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and also as the assistant coach for Kennett High School this past spring. Shweiki also was the head coach of USA Lacrosse Team Philly this spring, and was the coach for the squad at a USA Lacrosse Tournament in Massachusetts.

Shweiki will continue her education at Clarkson, seeking her MBA in Data Analytics.