The Santa Barbara 805 Water Polo Club’s 14-under girls, 14U boys, and 12U girls brought home gold and silver medals from the 2016 San Diego County Cup held over the weekend.
California’s oldest and most distinguished youth water polo tournament provides three days of competition against the best 14U, 12U, and 10U clubs in the United States.
Gold in the 14A Division
Santa Barbara’s 14UA’s, started where they left off at the recent State Championship Tournament. The A’s defeated Huntington Beach 18-4, CHAWP 11-1, Carlsbad 12-0, and SET 13-4 before defeating perennial power Laguna Beach 11-7 in the semifinal match. Santa Barbara crushed Rose Bowl 9-5 in the final.
Coached by John Roemer, Connor Levoff, Cathy Neushul, and Kelsie Hendrix, the 14s include Shannon Connolly, Angela Drake, Emma Engmyr, Abigail Hendrix, Claire Kronen, Cassidy Miller, Megan Musick, Ella Prentice, Jewel Roemer and Sabina Shackelford. Anna Cable and Riley Christen were in goal for the 2016 San Diego County Cup Champions. Megan Musick and Jewel Roemer were named to the All-Tournament Team and Ella Prentice was named Tournament MVP.
Gold in the 14B Division
Playing in the 14 girls second division, Santa Barbara’s 14UB team also brought home Gold from the San Diego Cup. Led by coaches Megan Linder, Cathy Neushul, Connor Levoff, and Kelsie Hendrix, the B’s defeated Big Valley 13-0, Corona del Mar 11-2, Diablo 9-1, and Los Angeles Water Polo Club 7-1 before meeting Back Bay in the semifinals and winning 5-2. Santa Barbara then defeated Hawaii 5-2 in the championship game.
The 14B’s included Jacqueline Caplan, Madeline Choi, Caroline Courtois, Isabella Godlis, Jordan Klanfer, Morgan McKillican, Hannah Meyer, Kelly Meckelborg, Elise Power, Callie Scott, Delaney Scott, Chloe Spievak, and Charlize Winter. Faith Tedesco was in goal for the champions. Bella Godlis and Charlize Winter were named to the All-Tournament Team and Faith Tedesco was named Tournament MVP.
Silver in the 12A Division
Santa Barbara’s 12UA’s made their best championship run of the season, defeating SC Tritons 8-4 and Rose Bowl 9-1, before tying Newport 8-8. The 12’s then defeated Commerce 6-4 before beating Foothill 5-3 in the semifinals. Santa Barbara met perennial power Laguna Beach in the finals and lost 5-4 in a hard-fought game that came down to a pick play in the final minute.
Led by Connor Levoff, Kelsie Hendrix, and Cathy Neushul, the 12A’s included Allison Bartholomew, Kyan Callo, Emma Gilbert, Kate Meyer, Reagan McEacher, Madison Sparre, and Ava Stryker. Lily Connor went the distance in goal and was named to the all-tournament team with Kate Meyer.
Historic Silver for 805 Boys in 14A Division
Santa Barbara’s 14UA Boys team hammered their way through the 29-team 14A Division, defeating Elite 15-5, South Bay United 10-2, and Stanford 4-3 before meeting Rose Bowl in the semifinals. In one of the hardest fought matches of the weekend, Santa Barbara tied Rose Bowl in regulation and won the game 8 minutes into a golden goal period, when Deacon Hill rammed home the game-winner from outside.
Santa Barbara fields one of physically largest 14U boys teams in the nation and yet showed considerable stamina throughout the tournament while retaining their power at center forward. Santa Barbara’s swimming regime paid off in the finals when they erased a three-goal deficit against LA Premier and closed to 6-7 before missing an opportunity to tie in the closing seconds. Silver at the 2016 San Diego County Cup is the highest finish ever for a Santa Barbara boys’ team.
Led by Cathy Neushul, Chris Parrish, Kelsie Hendrix, Megan Linder, and Connor Levoff, the 14A boys included Julian Bacon, Morgan Bacon, Rex Goodner, Deacon Hill, Shane Hoover, Liam McCarthy, Ethan Parrish, and Jacob Thielst. Brennan Bingham went the distance in goal. Ethan Parrish and Bingham were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Santa Barbara’s 14UA Boys continue to surprise by knocking off some of the most powerful clubs in the nation. The return of the team’s top utility, Chase Raisin, from a broken arm bodes well for a team that is now a legitimate contender to medal at the 2016 National Junior Olympics.
Long the nation’s best girls water polo club 805 Santa Barbara is now building boys teams that are medaling at the top tournaments in California.