IRVINE, Calif. – With a new season in the pool on the horizon, the Western Water Polo Association released its Preseason Poll with the Concordia Golden Eagles voted to finish No. 2 in the standings.
Salem narrowly claimed the No. 1 spot with just one more first-place vote than Concordia. Biola followed in third, followed by Gannon, McKendree and Fresno Pacific.
CUI head coach Justin Johnson enters his third season as leader of the program. Last year, CUI went 12-1 against D2/D3 schools and beat D1 teams Mt. Saint Mary's and Wagner on their way to securing the top seed out of the West Division and hosting the WWPA Tournament.
The Golden Eagles are eager to make it back to that final stage with the goal of capturing the tournament title and making it to the NCAA DII Championships for the first time in program history.
Concordia returns 11 members from last year's squad that made the WWPA Championship Game for the second straight season.
Harry Bentham has made First Team All-WWPA each of the past two seasons and set the school record for scoring in the D2 era with 163 career goals. Bentham and fellow senior
Sam Diamond both rank Top 5 in recorded points and recorded steals in the program's D2 era. Diamond was also WWPA Honorable Mention as a junior while
Kaliq Khan made the All-Freshman Team back in 2023.
A dozen new Golden Eagles will look to make their Concordia debuts in the coming days. This includes three new goalies (
Pablo de Souza,
Derek Maddox and
Ethan Sutherland) and multiple international student-athletes joining this year's team.
Dimitrios Koritsas hails from Thessaloniki, Greece and
Hugo Wouters is from the Netherlands, while
Nicolas Fuchs and de Souza are originally from Brazil. Meanwhile, Bentham is from England and fellow returners
Kai Young (Australia) and
Oscar Garcia Blomback (Sweden) are also back for Concordia as upperclassmen.
There is also lots of local flavor as Los Alamitos High School alum
Porter Rosenlof (Cypress College) joins the fray along with
Luc Chapman (Edison HS) and
Dylan Poladian (San Juan Hills HS). There is also a Clovis, Calif. connection with freshman
Carter Clenney joining fellow Buchanan HS alum
Luke Addington on the squad.
Canyon Johnson (Harmony Magnet Academy) and Oregon native
Levi Riegelmann (Sam Barlow HS) are also excited to contribute in their first season as Golden Eagles.
CUI opens the regular season this Friday, August 29 in a two-day tournament hosted by UC Irvine. The Golden Eagles face No. 13 CBU at 11:30 a.m. that day and then Cal State Fullerton in the nightcap at 6 p.m.
Chapman and the host Titans are the Saturday opponents to round out opening weekend.
CUI went undefeated against conference opponents Biola and Fresno Pacific a year ago and now will play newcomer UC Merced twice as well in league action in 2025.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI Men's Water Polo Schedule
CLICK HERE for the full WWPA Preseason Poll Story
