BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Bucknell University, located in Lewisburg, Pa., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., will host the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) and Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championships, respectively, on the weekend of Friday-Sunday, November 22-24.
Both championships will qualify teams for the 2019 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship with the Final Four slated to be contested at the University of the Pacific’s Chris Kjeldsen Aquatic Center in Stockton, Calif., on Saturday-Sunday, December 7-8.
The host of the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship in 2016, Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium will host the 2019 Championship.
Divided into two regions with the West Division (Connecticut College, Gannon University, McKendree University, Mercyhurst University, Monmouth College, Salem University, Washington & Jefferson College) teams qualifying one program via a championship tournament at the Hallman Aquatics Center in Erie, Pa., on November 8-10 to take on the East septet of Bucknell, Fordham University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, La Salle University, the United States Naval Academy and Wagner College in an eight-team clash, the MAWPC is the largest NCAA Men’s Water Polo Conference in the country with 14 teams.
The 2019 event will mark the fourth MAWPC Championship following previous tournaments in 2016 (at Bucknell), 2017 (at Navy’s Lejeune Hall) and 2018 (at Fordham’s Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatics Center). The current rotation has the championship returning to Annapolis, Md. (Navy – 2020) before going back to the Bronx, N.Y. (Fordham – 2021) as the prior hosts are penciled in to repeat over the coming years.
The Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship will come to return to Cambirdge, Mass., in 2019 as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center will serve as the site of this year’s event.
Comprised of Brown University, Harvard University, Iona College, MIT, Princeton University and St. Francis College Brooklyn, the NWPC has contested three previous championships since the creation of the Northeast Water Polo Conference and Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) prior to the 2016 season.
Following the inaugural NWPC Championships at Princeton (2016, Princeton, N.J.), Harvard (2017, Cambridge, Mass.) and Brown (2019, Providence, R.I.), the site rotation takes the event away from the Ivy triumvirate and back to the Bay State.
The event will return to Cambridge, Mass., for the second time in 2019 as MIT’s Alumni Pool at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center is the site of the fourth NWPC tournament.
Either St. Francis College Brooklyn or Iona College will host the 2020 championship if one of the teams can acquire a facility that meets the predetermined requirements for hosting the event. If either the Terriers or Gaels are unable to find an adequate facility, the event will forward to 2021 host Princeton. If either St. Francis or Iona do host the event in 2020, then Princeton will take its regular rotation in the schedule and host in 2021.
