BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Harvard University’s Austin Sechrest (Jr., Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley) garners Most Valuable Player honors, St. Francis College Brooklyn’s Djorde Stanic (Fr., Belgrade, Serbia/Pravno-Poslovna School) collects Rookie of the Year recognition and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Bret Lathrope earns Coach of the Year recognition as the 2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) All-Conference Team was released prior to the NWPC Championship on Friday-Sunday, November 16-18, at Brown University in Providence, R.I.
A total of 15 athletes are recognized as a tie occurred among the field players on the Second Team.
A 2017 Second Team selection, Sechrest picks up First Team honors after helping the Crimson to the NWPC regular season championship. He is the second Harvard player to garner Most Valuable Player honors since 1997 joining Joey Colton who earned Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Northern Division MVP recognition in 2014.
He is joined on the First Team by fellow Crimson athletes Noah Hodge (Fr., San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) and Dennis Blyashov (So., Carlsbad, Calif./Cathedral Catholic). A first-time selection at goalie, Hodge continues a trend of excellence by Harvard in cage following the selection of Anthony Ridgley (Sr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) on the NWPC First Team in 2017. The 2017 NWPC Rookie of the Year, Blyashov collects his second First Team All-Conference nod after earning a spot in 2017.
2018 NWPC regular season runner-up St. Francis Brooklyn garners a pair of First Team honorees and one Second Team pick. On the First Team, Bogdan Kostic (Sr., Nis, Serbia/Stevan Sremac) and William Lapkin (Jr., Newport Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) both earn their second First Team nod after earning the same laurel in 2017. Stanic collects his inaugural All-Conference award with Second Team recognition as he joins CWPA Northern Division picks Lazar Komadinic (2013), Filip Kisdobranski (2006) and Botond Szalma (2004) as Rookie of the Year recipients.
Princeton University collects two All-Conference awards with 2016 First Team pick Matt Payne (Sr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) earns a berth on the First Team, while 2016 Second Team honoree Ryan Wilson (Sr., Pacific Palisades, Calif./Loyola) repeats the accolade in 2018.
Brown University earns four All-Conference nods with Travis Bouscaren (Sr., Cambridge, Mass./Phillips Andover Academy) completing the First Team recipients. The trio of Armen Diermenjian (Jr., Beverly Hills, Calif./Loyola), Hudson Rawlings (Jr., Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley) and goalie Riad Hallal (So., Coronado, Calif./Coronado) all made the Second Team to garner their first All-Conference accolades.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology receives two Second Team picks with 2016 and 2017 Second Team recipient Clyde Huibregtse (Jr., New York, N.Y./Bronx) and Miller Geschke (Fr., Los Altos, Calif./Menlo School) being recognized for their play.
Lathrope’s selection as Coach of the Year makes him the third Engineers’ leader to garner COY honors following Adam Foley (2008) and Jeff Ma (2003) who were both recognized in the CWPA Northern Division.
Iona College’s Patrick Hudak (So., Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) completes the All-Conference team with a Second Team nod.
Athletes are selected based on institutional nominations from the six NWPC institutions’ (Brown, Harvard, Iona, MIT, Princeton, St. Francis Brooklyn) head coaches. A ballot is compiled of the nominations and presented to head coaches to vote for 12 field players, two goalies, a Most Valuable Player, a Rookie of the Year and a Coach of the Year based on the cumulative efforts of the athletes during the 2018 season.
2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference All-Conference Team
Most Valuable Player: Austin Sechrest (Harvard University)
Rookie of the Year: Djorde Stanic (St. Francis College Brooklyn)
Coach of the Year: Bret Lathrope (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
First Team:
Noah Hodge (Goalie – Harvard University)
Austin Sechrest (Harvard University)
Dennis Blyashov (Harvard University)
Bogdan Kostic (St. Francis College Brooklyn)
William Lapkin (St. Francis College Brooklyn)
Travis Bouscaren (Brown University)
Matt Payne (Princeton University)
Second Team:
Riad Hallal (Goalie – Brown University)
Hudson Rawlings (Brown University)
Armen Diermenjian (Brown University)
Clyde Huibregtse (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Miller Geschke (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Patrick Hudak (Iona College)
Ryan Wilson (Princeton University)
Djorde Stanic (St. Francis College Brooklyn)
