Mustang men's water polo team finishes third in nation

The Cal Poly men’s water polo club team swam its way to success this year, ranking third in the nation to cap off the season.

The Mustangs finished strong with a record of 23-1 last month at the national championships hosted by Miami (Ohio).

“I think that collectively, we played well as a team,” junior team president Josh Mix said. “We didn’t get down on ourselves. This year we had a really strong showing. We persevered through our whole season.”

The team’s only loss was to second-ranked Grand Valley State by a score of 10-9. Michigan State took the national title.

“We were definitely trying to go for first place,” freshman Aaron Shilling said. “When we lost in semifinals, it was kind of heartbreaking.”

Two of Cal Poly’s standouts made the 2006 National Championship All-Tournament teams. Junior Daniel Harris, the team’s leading scorer, made the first team and senior Ryan Smillie made the second team.

Leading up to nationals, Cal Poly finished league play with an 8-0 record. The Mustangs went on to beat Chico State, San Jose State and UC Davis to claim the Pacific Coast Division championship at Cal Poly from Nov. 4-5.

“Just winning our division was a huge deal, because a lot of people didn’t think that we were going to win it,” Mix said.

Last year, Cal Poly didn’t make it to the National Championships, and placed second in the Pacific Coast Division behind UCLA. The Mustangs had an impressive record, though, and were named national champions in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

“This was definitely the season where we wanted to get back into form,” Mix said.

No matter what, Mix said, Cal Poly works hard and enjoys water polo.

“It’s a fun sport to play, and always exciting,” he said. “The practice is always worth it when you perform well. It’s a sport that requires a lot of training just to stay in shape.”

Shilling, who led the Mustangs in steals this season, said there are very few players graduating this year, giving them a good chance at reaching national championships next year.

If they work hard enough, the players are confident they can reclaim glory, and are already taking steps to make improvements.

“We’re going to be practicing a lot more in the offseason,” Shilling said.

Since it is a club team, Cal Poly doesn’t get any funding from the university. As a result, some of the work the team puts in over the season involves coming up with some unconventional methods of fundraising to support the team’s needs.

The players put together a 2006-07 academic wall calendar, following the success of their 2004 calendar. It’s a mixture of action shots from practices and games and posed photos, humorously featuring the scantily-clad players.

As its only source of funding, the team hopes the calendar is fun and attention-grabbing enough to gain student support, even though sales have been slow this year.

The calendar is on sale at El Corral Bookstore for $10, and will soon be reduced to $7 for winter quarter.