BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) maintains a record book for the organization’s men’s water polo championship that details all the pertinent information for the National Championship.
Detailing the year-by-year results of the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship, the publication includes information on each year’s All-Tournament Team, scoring leaders, tournament and individual game records and program win-loss records dating back to the inaugural NCAA Championship in 1969.
Some factoids:
- The NCAA Championship has been hosted in seven states (California, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)
- The best attendance for an NCAA Championship came in 1988 when the University of California defeated the University of California-Los Angles (UCLA) by a 14-11 score in front of 5,073 fans in Long Beach, Calif.
- From 1969 to 1994, the championship was composed of eight teams. From 1995-to-2012, the championship field was four teams. From 2013-to-2015, the championship was composed of six teams. The 2016 championship has seven teams and expanded to eight teams in 2017.
- Three championships are credited to multiple coaches as John Williams/Jovan Vavic of the University of Southern California is listed as the coach of record for the 1998 championship. In 1999 and 2000, Guy Baker and Adam Krikorian are credited for back-to-back UCLA championships.
- California holds the most championships with 14, while Stanford University (11), UCLA (11) USC (10), University of California-Irvine (three), Pepperdine University (one) and the University of California-Santa Barbara (one) also hold titles.
- Scott Schulte of Bucknell University is the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Championship history with 50 goals as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame member led the tournament in scoring four-times (14 goals in 1977, 13 goals in 1978, 11 goals in 1979, 12 goals in 1980). He is the only player in sport history to lead the NCAA Championship in scoring four times.
- Putting up the most goals by an individual player is a pattern for East Coast programs as Luis Nicolao (10 goals, 1990), Doug Munz (11 goals, 1994) and Kyle Wertz (six goals, 2008) of the United States Naval Academy along with Brian Stahl (five goals, 1996) of the University of Massachusetts, Michael Vieira (five goals, 2002) of Queens College, Thomas Nelson (six goals, 2011) of Princeton University and Rade Joksimovic (eight goals, 2019) have earned the scoring title outright or tied for the honor.
- The most goals in a game record is nine and was achieved twice as Greg Carey of the University of California-Santa Barbara reached the mark in a 21-2 defeat of Yale University in 1972 and Blake Hinman of Texas A&M University equaled the feat in a 21-13 win versus the University of Pittsburgh in 1976.
- The highest scoring NCAA Championship game came in 1971 as UCLA held off the University of Washington, 37-2. UCLA’s 37 goals mark the most scored by a single team in a game at the championship.
- A total of 38 teams have appeared in the NCAA Championship as UCLA (34), USC (34), Stanford (33), California (29), UC-Irvine (21), the University of California-San Diego (15), Navy (14), Pepperdine University (13), Brown University (12), Long Beach State University (12), UC-Santa Barbara (12), Loyola University-Chicago (10), Loyola Marymount University (eight), United States Air Force Academy (eight), Bucknell (seven), Massachusetts (seven), the University of California-Davis (seven), Princeton (six), San Jose State University (four), St. Francis College Brooklyn (four), University of the Pacific (four), Harvard University (three), Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (three), the University of Arizona (three), the University of New Mexico (three), ColoradoState University (two), California State University-Fullerton (two), George Washington University (two), Queens (two), Slippery Rock University (two), Texas A&M (two), the University of Arkansas-Little Rock (two), Whittier College (two), Yale (two), the United States Military Academy (one), Pittsburgh (one), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (one) and Washington (one) have competed for the National Championship.
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