BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) collegiate club assignor Michael Francis announced the six officials selected to call the 2024 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship at the University of Florida’s O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla., on Friday-Sunday, November 8-10.
Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame members Michael Schofield (Arnold, Md.) and Edward “Ted” Bresnahan (Lighthouse Point, Fla.) join Chad Lemons (Durham, N.C.), Kevin Heinrich (Johnson City, Tenn.), Stephanie Villalobos (Sanford, Fla.) and Jorge Villalobos (Sanford, Fla.) in garnering assignment for the three-day, 30-game championship matching the champions of the Atlantic, Big Ten, Florida, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Missouri Valley, New England, New York, North Atlantic, Northwest, Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain, Southeast, Southwest and Texas Divisions along with the runner-up from the Florida Division due to host Florida claiming the Florida Division crown.
For fans attending the National Collegiate Club Championship, a three-day tournament pass ($25) or a one-day pass ($10) for the league’s club championship will be available at the door. All children 12 and under are free of charge. Host students, faculty, and staff will be $5/day or $10 for the tournament with a current ID. All tickets are exclusively available at the door as there will be no presale in advance of the championship.
Fans who are unable to make the trip to Florida for the championship can follow the action via live-streaming of the weekend on a pay-per-view basis at CWPATV.com. The cost of viewership is $10 per game, or $25 for the weekend tournament package that includes all the contested games.
2024 marks the third time a Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship will be hosted at Florida as the 2001 and 2009 events occurred in “The Swamp”. Overall, four National Collegiate Club Championships have been contested in Florida with the 2017 Men’s Championship and 2012 Women’s Championship both hosted by Florida State University.
The 16-team club championship tournament is the largest collegiate water polo championship in the nation. Seeds are determined by the order of finish by the divisions at the 2023 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Utah at the Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center in Kearns, Utah, on Friday-Sunday, November 10-12.
Since 1993, 13 different institutions have claimed the Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship as Northwestern University (1993), the United States Military Academy (1994), the University of Dayton (1995), the University of Michigan (1996, 1998, 2003), Dartmouth College (1997), California Polytechnic State University (1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007), Michigan State (2000, 2006, 2008, 2021), Grand Valley State University (2005), the University of California-Los Angeles (2009, 2010, 2013), the University of Southern California (2011, 2012), Lindenwood University (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), San Diego State University (2017) and the University of California-San Diego (2022, 2023) have finished on top.
This also marks the first time the Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship will be hosted on a college campus since the 2019 event at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pa. Following the cancellation of the 2020 event due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the University of Alabama (Huntsville Aquatic Center, Huntsville, Ala.), Oregon State University (Chehalem Aquatic & Fitness Center, Newberg, Ore.) and Utah (Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center, Kearns, Utah) hosted the 2021, 2022 and 2023 events at off campus facilities.
