- Charlie Mills - goalie - USC I know he is the backup but man he was solid at worlds
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- Gavin West, Attacker, Stanford
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- Wade Sherlock, LH attacker UCLA
- Gavin Appeldorn, Princeton, Soph., Ut.
Kind of stunned to be getting Gavin Appeldorn at this pick. I was debating taking him instead of a goalie with my last pick. He is listed as a utility on the Princeton website but our plan is play him on the 4-5 side with Black and use him as a secondary two-meter behind Schneider. We’ll play the matchup game and try to pull in a weaker defender if we can. An All-American last season, Appeldorn had 52 goals and drew 61 exclusions. He also competed for Team USA this summer in the u20 Worlds.
One note here, Princeton does the best job in the country of televising water polo and I have watched just about all of their home games since televising them became a thing. Clear sight lines on ESPN Plus. Their announcers are always excellent and study up on the opponents. Really surprised that a team with Kovacs, Appeldorn, LeSeiur, Palcza and Ohl is only ranked tenth in the country. If Stothart is as good as people say, that is a very, very dangerous team. It is a good thing for Eastern water polo that Fordham-Princeton is happening twice this season. That game on Rose Hill last fall was a raucous affair and the sport deserves a home and home.
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Tommy Baldineti, LMU, attacker
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Adam Wright, coach, ucla
- Balazs Berenyi, Fordham, Sr., Ut.
Berenyi is going to see time at 2MD with Luca Silvestri and Mark Dyck for the Rams and that will be his primary chore for my team. One of my favorite players on the Fordham roster, he is hard-nosed and does everything. Fast as well, he used to sprint for Fordham before Toth arrived. With 135 career goals, we are going to have some pop out of all six spots in the water which is important for how we want to play. Berenyi is also an Elite 90 winner (the award for player with the highest grade point average at NCAAs). That’s important as we want to make sure we keep that team GPA high also.
- Brett Ormsby, Coach, J Serra
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- Jackson Matos, 2MD, UC Irvine
- Brian Bacharach — coach — Fordham: definitely the hot program at the moment, but I do love his demeanor and ability to evaluate foreign talent
- CJ Indart - 2MD - Stanford
- Thomas Kiesling, Attacker, UC Davis
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Team 8: Last but not least
(8.) Brendon Gyapjas - goalie, San Jose State, junior. Don’t take my word for it. Kirk Everist raves about Gyapjas, a 2x All-American. No telling what he could do if he played for a top 5 team.
(9.) Ben Liechty - 6’4" LH attacker, UCLA, junior. Let’s hope DU recognizes that we need a LH attacker on the 2028 Olympic team. If so, Liechty should be the pick. Liechty was the CIF Southern Section Open Division Player of the Year in 2022. He was second in total points (goals and assists) on UCLA’s 2024 team and fourth in 2023. He played a key role on the U.S. team that won the silver medal in this summer’s U20 World Championships.
(24.) Andrej Grgurevic - 6’7" attacker, USC, senior. Grgurevic played for Australia in the 2025 World Championships and is expected to play in the 2028 Olympics. He scored 40 goals for USC last year, including 5 in the NCAA semifinal game between USC and Fordham.
(25.) Adam Csapo - 6’4" attacker, Pepperdine, senior. Csapo, a 3x honorable mention All-American, has scored 183 goals and has 96 assists in his first three years at Pepperdine.
(40.) Dominic Brown - 6’6" center, Cal, redshirt sophomore. Brown played for the United States in the 2025 World Championships. He will play for Cal this year, after transferring from UCSB. He was an honorable mention All-American for UCSB last year, scoring 46 goals with a shooting percentage of 60.5.
(41.) Diego Tresa - 6’7" center/attacker/center defender, Fordham, freshman. Fordham coach Brian Bacharach on Tresa: “Diego is a unique talent, due to his size and athleticism that allows him to play every position in the pool. We expect that he will be able to help add some needed size to our team up the middle at the center and center defender positions, but we also plan to utilize him on the perimeter.” Tresa is playing for the Italian 18u team at the European Championships. being held in Romania. He has been called up to the Italian senior national team twice. I will use him as a true utility player on my team.
(56.) Ben Larsen - 6’7" center defender, UCLA, redshirt junior. I didn’t set out to draft a team with a lot of tall players but that’s how it worked out. Larsen is another player who can play multiple positions. He will be my principal center defender.
(57.) Dusty Litvak - coach, Princeton. Considering all of the restrictions that face Ivy League coaches, Litvak has done wonders at Princeton. If I were the Athletic Director of a “Big 4” school looking for a men’s water polo coach, Litvak would be the first person I’d call.
H20polo10 is on the clock, followed by Oldschoolpolofan and retiredguy.
- Kirk Everist, Head Coach, Cal.
I will post my commentary later.
Oldschoolpolofan asked me to post his final selection:
- Gavin Arroyo, coach, LBSU
retiredguy is on the clock.
- Johann Thrall - attacker - UC Irvine
- Ross Sinclair, Coach, Newport Harbor HS
NCAA Champion: UCLA
UCLA’s “second six” might be at the level of a top 4 team in the country. While their top 6 might be arguably second best to SC, I think their depth carries them over the edge at the end of a long season. I think USC gives them a tough challenge in the title game.
Team that will be better than expected: LBSU
I think Long Beach makes the final four this year. If you told me they upset someone to make the final, I wouldn’t be shocked. They got in excellent transfers, and their center duo competes with any team in the country. I wouldn’t want to play them on any given day.
Cutino Award Winner: Ryder Dodd, UCLA
I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by explaining this pick. But if USC wins it all, I think Lopez Duart or Herzer wins the award. I’ll add Provenzani from Fordham and Acosta from LBSU to the list of finalists.
MPSF Newcomer of the Year: Gavin Conant, USC
After watching him play this summer, I’m a bit surprised there isn’t more hype around him coming into the season. He can do it all in the pool. I think he makes a splash right away for the Trojans.
Coach of the Year: Gavin Arroyo, LBSU
For the reasons I listed above when talking about Long Beach, I give Arroyo the nod for Coach of the Year.
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- Barnabas Eppel, Center, Fordham
- James Graham, Pacific, Coach
One of the very best game planners in the country he is an easy choice. The success he has had at Pacific is incredible.
Here are my final picks:
NCAA Champion: UCLA
I know this has been discussed a lot of places (most recently this week’s episode of Water Polo Wednesday) but seedings are going to be exceptionally important this season. I think UCLA is the favorite to have that first overall seed which makes them even more prohibitive favorites for that NCAA title.
The current format will have them likely playing Salem International or Concordia in the first round. Meanwhile USC, likely Cal or Stanford, Fordham, Long Beach State, Pepperdine and Princeton are favored to be 2-7. Those quarterfinal matchups could be brutal with each of those teams having to go full tilt. That will likely leave a tired team facing the top seed in one semifinal with the other semifinal probably being a second brutal game in two days (see Fordham-USC last year). If this plays out like 2024 the top seeded Bruins will definitely be the fresher squad versus a likely fatigued opponent.
My opinion is you should start NCAAs on Wednesday and run them Wednesday-Friday-Sunday. You do it conjunction with USA Water Polo hosting a festival with a skills clinic, All-Star game consisting of players who didn’t make NCAAs, maybe a celebrity game of five lives. Blow it out and make it fun. Any team that makes the Final Four has the budget to stay a few extra days. Also, this is basically what lacrosse does and they are the fastest growing sport in America. Nothing wrong with copying.
Team that will do better than expected: Navy. I just think #20 in the preseason polls was waaaaayyy too low.
Cutino Award Finalists: Ryder Dodd, Luca Provenziani, Bernardo Herzer
Cutino Award winner: Ryder Dodd
MPSF Newcomer of the Year: Mihailo Vukazic
Coach of the Year: Gavin Arroyo. I would echo the previous poster. Long Beach has a chance to make the Finals this year. That is a LOADED squad.
Final team:
Luca Provenziani, Fordham
Kiefer Black, Navy
Will Schneider, Stanford
Tom Leggett, Air Force
Gavin Appeldorn, Princeton
Balazs Berenyi, Fordham
Aran Pina, California
Coach: James Graham
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- Ante Buzov, utility, ucsd
Long hot few days! Will add comments on my team Monday!
My final team:
Strahinja Krstic, Center, USC
West Temkin, GK, Stanford
Gray Carson, CD, UCLA
Toring Stanley, Attacker, Long Beach St.
Zach Bettino, LH Attacker, USC
JP Ohl, LH Attacker, Princeton
Thomas Kiesling, Attacker, UC Davis
Kirk Everist, Coach, Cal
My predictions. I was way off last year so time to get back on track. I’m going with UCLA. They have too much firepower in 2 meters plus the Dodds, Liechty, Sherlock, Carsalade, and Brinkema on the perimeter. I think USC and Fordham will be tough competition. I really like Long Beach State’s roster and could see them making a strong run. I predict it’ll be UCLA vs USC with UCLA winning the championship in a one goal game.
I agree with Trevor. Navy has a great roster. I think they’ll end up ranked much higher than they currently are.
I’m going to go with my pick Strahinja Krstic for MPSF Newcomer of the Year. SC will need Krstic and Martin to be elite if they’re going to win it all, which they very well could.
Cutino Award. Ryder Dodd wins it again. I’ll go with Robert Lopez Duarte and Luca Provenziani as the other Cutino finalists.
Coach of the year: Adam Wright, UCLA
Another great draft in the books. Looking forward to another great season of water polo.
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