Santa Barbara Water Polo’s Kami Craig and Kiley Neushul, members of Team USA, are in pursuit of the same goal—win an Olympic Gold Medal in Rio. After being named to the PAC 12 All-Century Women’s Water Polo Team, the two joined another elite squad.
This past month, the local duo were named to the prestigious team composed of seventeen players from the nation’s oldest and most distinguished water polo conference.
At USC, Craig won an NCAA Championship in 2010 and was twice selected as recipient of the Peter J. Cutino Award (water polo’s Heisman) in 2009-10.
Among the world’s best center forwards, she is the only woman ever to win back-to-back Cutino’s. An All-American all four years of her career, Craig is ninth on USC’s all-time scoring list.
She won Silver and Gold as a member of Team USA in Beijing and London and is currently training for her third Olympic games.
In addition to this, Craig starred at Santa Barbara High where she won CIF titles her junior and senior years.
At Stanford, playing as an attacker, Neushul won three NCAA Championships (2012, 2014, 2015) and was named the Cutino Award winner in her freshman and senior years on the Farm.
A four-time All-American she is the third leading scorer in Stanford history. Neushul won World, FINA World League Super Final, and FINA World Cup Championships with Team USA and is presently training for Rio 2016.
At Dos Pueblos High School, she won four-straight CIF titles, one division two and three division one.
Craig, Neushul, and Sami Hill were in Kunshan, China, this week where the three Santa Barbara Water Polo veterans helped lead Team USA to their second consecutive Kunshan Cup title with a 7-5 victory over Australia.
Neushul scored four goals in the championship. Team USA split their last four games with Australia, going ahead three games to two with the victory in Kunshan. USA and Australia are ranked 1-2 in the world leading up to the 2016 Olympics.
Team USA will now travel to Shanghai for the 2016 FINA World League Superfinal (June 7-12). The tournament includes Australia, Brazil, China, Italy, Spain, and Russia all teams that qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The Superfinal will be the last time Team USA faces many of the world’s top teams prior to the Rio Olympic Games.