CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team will serve as the host for the 2025 USA Water Polo Division III national championships on Saturday and Sunday at Axelrood Pool.
CMS will be the top seed in the four-team tournament, opening play in the semifinals on Saturday at 12 p.m. against fourth-seeded Augustana. The second semifinal will feature second-seeded Pomona-Pitzer against third-seeded MIT on Saturday at 2 p.m. The third-place game will be on Sunday at 10 a.m., with the national championship game at noon.
The Stags will be making their fourth all-time appearance in the USA Water Polo national championships, most recently winning the national title at Augustana in 2023 with a 6-5 win over Redlands. CMS also fell 12-11 in overtime at Pomona-Pitzer in the 2021 national championship, and was the runner-up to Whittier in the inaugural tournament in 2019, falling 5-3 in the finals.
CMS earned the right to host this year's national championships by winning the SCIAC Tournament, defeating Pomona-Pitzer 13-11 in the finals to avenge its only regular season loss to a Division III team (10-9 in overtime). The Stags now stand at 22-5 on the year, with the only other losses coming to nationally ranked Division I programs (UC San Diego, USC, Princeton and UC Santa Barbara).
Nick Kennedy earned the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year Award and comes into the national tournament with 163 points on 90 goals and 73 assists.
Thomas Walker is also nearing a 100-point season with 68 goals and 30 assists, with
Gavin Netherton at 30 goals and 33 assists,
Donovan Davidson with 32 goals and 22 assists, and centers
Luke (Bear) Weigle and
Jeffrey Koretz each tallying 40 goals on the year.
Jake Taylor has played most of the season in goal and earned first-team All-SCIAC honors.
Kennedy comes into the postseason with 195 career goals and Weigle has 193, leaving them both in reach of joining the 200-goal club. Davidson had a key role in the last CMS title in 2023, scoring the tying and winning goals on back-to-back possessions in the final two minutes as CMS rallied from a 5-3 fourth-quarter deficit against Redlands for a 6-5 win.
Pomona-Pitzer comes into the national tournament with a 19-13 record and a regular season SCIAC title (12-0) to its credit. Jaden Winters has been the top scorer for the Sagehens with 64 goals and 27 assists, while Indigo Lee has 45 goals and 28 assists, and center Darragh Flanders has 51 goals.
MIT has played a largely Division I schedule and stands 8-20, but picked up a postseason win over Iona in the Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship quarterfinals. Casper Lightner leads the Engineers in scoring with 74 goals and 15 assists, while Rick Lundh has tallied 52 goals and 33 assists for 85 points. Derek Schaffer has amassed a team-high 57 assists, while Adam Ivatorov is second on the team with 68 goals.
Augustana earned its way in with a dramatic 16-15 sudden death overtime victory over Johns Hopkins in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship tournament on a Rhys Lomax goal, improving to 17-8 on the year. Stevan Rasic led the Vikings in goals with 45 heading into the MPSF Tournament, followed by Lomax with 29, while Oskar Bannister leads in assists with 23. Rasic (50), Bannister (48) and Lomax (48) were in a tight three-way race for the team lead in points when the postseason began.
Tickets for the USA Water Polo Championship are $12 for a single-day session and $20 for an all-weekend pass. Live streaming for the tournament will be produced by USA Water Polo through Overnight.com. All links can be found at the tournament home page below:
USA Water Polo Division III Championship Home Page
