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

First Team
Alex Wolf (Goalie) UCLA
Felix Brozyna-Vilim UCLA
Ben Hallock Stanford
Tyler Abramson Stanford
Rade Joksimovic Bucknell
Ivan Gvozdanovic UC Santa Barbara
Luke Pavillard Pacific
Jacob Mercep USC
Second Team
Nicholas Porter (Goalie) USC
Hannes Daube USC
Balazs Kosa Pepperdine
Chris Dilworth Pepperdine
Bennett Williams Stanford
Nir Gross UC Davis
Jordan Hoover Cal
Ege Colak Pacific
Third Team
Danny Roland (Goalie) UC Santa Barbara
AJ Rossman Stanford
Quinn Woodhead Stanford
Jake Cavano UCLA
Tommy Gruwell UCLA
Austin Stewart Long Beach State
Safak Simsek Cal
Marin Dasic USC
Honorable Mention
Bailey O’Mara (Goalie) Fordham
Noah Hodge (Goalie) Harvard
Yahav Fire (Goalie) San Jose State
Andrew Chun (Goalie) Stanford
Jonah Addington (Goalie) UC Davis
Adrian Weinberg (Goalie) Cal
Armen Deirmenjian Brown
James Thygesen Brown
Hudson Rawlings Brown
Logan Schofield Bucknell
Logan Mena Cal Baptist
Jake Miller-Tolt Fordham
Dimitris Koukias Fordham
Charlie Owens Harvard
Dennis Blyashov Harvard
Austin Sechrest Harvard
Daniel Domotor LaSalle
Rafael Real Vergara Long Beach State
Blazo Mitrovic Loyola Marymount
Marko Asic Pepperdine
Sean Thomas Pepperdine
Mate Toth Pepperdine
Mitchell Cooper Princeton
Yurian Quinones Princeton
Finn Pardon San Jose State
Mac Carey Santa Clara
Shane Hughes Santa Clara
Dylan Woodhead Stanford
Andras Levai George Washington
Andrew Mavis George Washington
Leo Yuno UC Santa Barbara
Jacob Halle UC Santa Barbara
Nathan Puentes UC Santa Barbara
Sam Nangle UC Santa Barbara
Nikos Papanikolaou Cal
Jeremie Cote Pacific
Jake Ehrhardt USC
Sam Slobodien USC
Isaac Salinas Navy
Oliver Fodor Wagner

2
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

2 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
tnp101
4 years ago

The first repeat NPOY since the great Tony Azevedo, former Stanford.

Swammer
4 years ago

Hallock is something special