BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — 2026 Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Adam Ivatorov (Rockaway, N.Y./Staten Island Technical) earned recognition as a 2026 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Division III Men’s At-Large Academic All-America Third Team selection.
The 40th Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)/Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)/Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) men’s water polo athlete to earn Academic All-America honors since fellow Engineer John Friedman earned the league’s inaugural honor in 1983, Ivatorov is the sixth MIT competitor to earn the prestigious accolade joining Friedman (1983, First Team), Mat Lau (1997, Third Team), Craig Cheney (2014, First Team), Clyde Huibregtse (2020, Second Team) and Colin Weaver (2024, Third Team) and the first to repeat following 2025 Third Team laurels.
Further, he is the fifth CWPA/MAWPC/NWPC men’s athlete to tally multiple Academic All-America acknowledgements joining Gabriel Merrero (University of Massachusetts – 1998 Third, 1999 First), Jeremy Selbst (Johns Hopkins University – 2010 Third, 2011 First), Nicholas Willison (Washington & Jefferson College – 2016 First, 2017 First) and Jayden Kunwar (Johns Hopkins – 2021 Third, 2022 Third).
The Academic All-America honor is the second major award in the past several months for Ivatorov who earned 2026 Howard A. Johnson Award recipient – presented annually to the male MIT senior athlete of the year. He is the fourth water polo athlete to receive the highest athletic acknowledgement at MIT since the accolade’s inaugural presentation in 1948 joining Columbus Leonard (2012), Stefan Bewley (2001) and Preston Vorelicek (1979).
A three-time (2023, 2024, 2025) ACWPC Division III All-America Second Team honoree to rate as the second Engineer to register three All-America awards, Ivatorov reset the career scoring mark at the institution with 328 goals.
A 2023 USA Water Polo Division III Championship All-Tournament and a 2025 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Division III Men’s At-Large Academic All-America Third Team selection, he finished second on the team with 73 goals, drew a career-best 119 ejections and added 14 steals and eight blocks in 2025. For his final year performance, Ivatorov received NWPC All-Conference Second Team and NWPC Championship All-Tournament Honorable Mention notice to finish out his tenure as a three-time (2023, 2024, 2025) NWPC All-Conference selection.
Out of the pool Ivatorov was the President of the MIT Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and held the positions of Founder, President, and Professional Development Chair of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity while also being a member of the MIT School of Engineering Student Advisory Group. He is now working at Bain and Company in New York City.
He is one of six men’s water polo athletes around the country to earn CSC Academic All-America honors joining Balazs Berenyi (Fordham University – Division I Second Team), West Temkin (Stanford University – Division I Second Team), Andrej Grgurevic (University of Southern California – Division I Third Team), Forrest Gray (Fresno Pacific University – Division II Third Team) and Mark Addison (Augustana College – Division III First Team). Temkin competed his inaugural two collegiate seasons as a member of the Princeton University men’s water polo team.
The Academic All-America Teams, selected by CSC, recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances in their sport and in the classroom. Sports included in the men’s at-large program are fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. MIT is the all-time leader across all divisions in producing CSC Academic All-America awards with 458 honors.
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