Stanford’s Ben Hallock Repeats as Division I Water Polo Player of the Year

NCAA men’s water polo champion Stanford pulled in the top two Division I honors of the 2019 season as Ben Hallock was tabbed as Player of the Year and John Vargas was named Coach of the Year. Hallock repeats as National Player of the Year after also earning the honor in 2018, while Vargas garnered his first Coach of the Year honor.

Hallock led the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation ranks with 73 goals, including a hat trick in the NCAA title match.

Hallock and Vargas led the Cardinal to their first NCAA crown since 2002 with a 13-8 win over #5 Pacific on December 8.

Joining Hallock in representing Stanford on the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches Division I All-America first team was Tyler Abramson. Abramson turned in 63 goals and 33 assists to ranks second in the MPSF in both categories.

Teammate Bennett Williams garnered second team acclaim, while AJ Rossman and Quinn Woodhead were selected to the third team. Goalie Andrew Chun and Dylan Woodhead earned honorable mention accolades to bring the Cardinal total to seven All-Americans.

UC Santa Barbara and USC each managed six selections, followed by Pepperdine (5).

The ACWPC named eight players each to the first, second and third team, while an additional 43 received honorable mention honors. The players represent 22 institutions.

Along with Stanford, #5 UCLA was the only other team to put two players on the ACWPC first team: goalie Alex Wolf and Felix Borzyna-Vilim. Bruins Jake Cavano and Tommy Gruwell were named to the third team. Wolf ranked fourth in the MPSF with 179 saves.

Bucknell’s Rade Joksimovic, UC Santa Barbara’s Ivan Gvozdanovic, Pacific’s Luke Pavillard and USC’s Jacob Mercep rounded out the first team.

Joksimovic netted 127 goals to lead the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference, while also chipping in 38 assists (fifth). Gvozdanovic was second in the Golden Coast Conference with 41 assists, while Pavillard was third in the GCC in goals (64) and fourth in assists (34). Mercep ranked tied for fourth in the MPSF in goals (51) and third in assists (32).

The #2 Trojans landed goalie Nicholas Porter and Hannes Daube on the second team, Marin Dasic on the third team and Jake Ehrhardt and Sam Slobodien on the honorable mention listing.

Gvozdanovic, UC Santa Barbara’s assist leader (41), was joined by goalie Danny Roland (third team) and four honorable mention selections: Leo Yuno, Jacob Halle, Nathan Puentes and Sam Nangle. 

Along with Pavillard, national runnerup Pacific saw Ege Colak make the second team and Jeremie Cote take honorable mention accolades.

National semifinalist Pepperdine, which ended the season at #4, saw top scorer Balazs Kosa (93 goals, 47 assists) and Chris Dilworth selected to the second team and three players – Marko Asic, Sean Thomas and Mate Toth – tabbed as honorable mention honorees.

#9 UC Davis, #10 Bucknell and #11 Harvard, which rounded out the seven-team NCAA Championship field garnered two, two and four All-America honorees respectively.

UC Davis put Nir Gross on the second team and goalie Jonah Addington on the honorable list.

Bucknell first teamer Rade Joksimovic was joined by Logan Schofield, who garnered honorable mention recognition.

Harvard was represented by honorable mention selections Charlie Owens, Dennis Blyashov and Austin Sechrest along with goalie Noah Hodge.

ACWPC All-America teams are selected from coach nominees and voted on by varsity head coaches. The ACWPC will honor All-America selections from Division I, II and III separately throughout the week.

Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches
2019 All-America Teams