Huntington Beach, CA – July 23 – USA Men’s National Team Head Coach Dejan Udovicic has announced the roster for the upcoming 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia. Team USA is coming off gold at the recently completed Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada where they qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games. The same 13 athletes that represented Team USA in Toronto will compete in Russia.
Team captain Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA/Stanford/NYAC) joins Olympic veterans Jesse Smith (Coronado, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC), Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA/California/NYAC), and John Mann (Newport Beach, CA/California/NYAC) on the roster that will begin play on Monday against the host, Russia. Team USA will also take on Greece and Italy to round out pool play. See below for the rest of the roster.
Universal Sports will be televising all the action from Kazan. For more information on their broadcast schedule, click here.
2015 FINA World Championship Men’s Schedule
July 27 vs Russia 8:50am pt
July 29 vs Greece (7/28 – 11:30pm pt)
July 31 vs Italy 11:30am pt
August 2 TBD (Qualification)
August 4 TBD (Quarterfinals)
August 6 TBD (Semifinals)
August 8 TBD (Finals)
2015 FINA World Championship Men’s Water Polo Roster
GK – Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC)
GK – McQuin Baron (North Tustin, CA/USC/United)
C – John Mann (Newport Beach, CA/California/NYAC)
C – Alex Obert (Loomis, CA/Pacific/Sac Polo)
D – Jesse Smith (Coronado, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC)
D – Jackson Kimbell (Long Beach, CA/Stanford/Newport)
D – Alex Roelse (Maarssen, Netherlands/UCLA/Bruin)
A – Josh Samuels (Villa Park, CA/UCLA/NYAC)
A – Alex Bowen (Santee, CA/Stanford/NYAC)
A – Luca Cupido (Newport Beach, CA/California/Newport)
A – Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA/Stanford/NYAC)
A – Bret Bonanni (Huntington Beach, CA/Stanford/Stanford)
A – Nikola Vavic (Palos Verdes, CA/USC/Trojan)Head Coach: Dejan Udovicic
Asst. Coaches: Jack Kocur and Alex Rodriguez
Team Leader: Rick McKee
Swimming news courtesy of USA Water Polo.
