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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Newport Beach Water Polo girls have banner Junior Olympics, with 3 golds
IRVINE — The Newport Beach Water Polo Club girls came, they saw and they conquered at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics. Three gold medals were earned Sunday, in the platinum division for the 10-and-under, 14U and 16U age groups. The national club championships stretched across families for Newport Beach. The Mack sisters each collected one, with Maryn in the 10s, McKenna in the 14s and Madison in the 16s. 'In the Newport program, it hasn't really happened before, so that was pretty fun and exciting,' said McKenna Mack, an incoming junior at Newport Harbor High. 'I was watching my sister McKenna's game before we played, and after I saw her win and I knew my little sister Maryn won, I had that fire in me. I wanted to win as well, so all of my sisters and I could win. 'I think that really represents Newport well, that three of our girls teams could win. I think it just shows how amazing the program is at Newport, and how well it pushes all athletes, gives all girls and boys the opportunity to have success with the sport of water polo.' Below is a recap of each championship match won by Newport Beach. The Newport Beach 16-and-under girls beat Santa Barbara 805 13-8 for the championship. Gabby Alexson, an incoming junior center at Newport Harbor High and last year's Daily Pilot Dream Team Player of the Year for girls' water polo, earned MVP honors. She scored twice in the final, with Madison Mack, Addison Ting and Kennedy Fahey tallying three goals each. Emerson Mulvey also scored twice, and goalkeeper Sutton Lohman made seven saves. Alexson, Ting, Lohman, Sadie Ricks, Valery Verdugo and Caroline Daniel have now earned Junior Olympics gold medals at the 12s level in 2021, the 14s two years ago and now the 16s. 'Every time here, we get more medals,' Alexson said with a smile. 'We've been really looking forward to having this team together. It's been really fun. We went out there and did our job. It was a really dominant game, and it was fun having our whole squad together.' The Newport Beach 16s went a perfect 7-0 in the tournament, winning every match by at least five goals. Christina O'Beck was the head coach of both the 14s and 16s gold-medal winners, who played back-to-back championship matches at the same pool. 'The current freshmen that are rising sophomores, like Caroline Daniel and Addie Ting, we were in the 14U championship game last year and lost,' O'Beck said. 'I think for them to come back and have a win is really special.' The Newport Beach 14-and-under girls scored a win in one of the most exciting gold-medal matches of the day, taking down Irvine Patriot by a 10-9 score. Defender CeCe Mesenbrink had two goals and four steals in the final, earning MVP honors. Mesenbrink's penalty shot with 2:22 left in the fourth quarter held up as the game-winning goal. 'It feels amazing,' said Mesenbrink, an incoming eighth grader at Ensign Intermediate School. 'We played as hard as we could as a team, we played for each other and no one was selfish about it. We just played as a team.' Zoey Johnson led with three goals in the final, while Hope Doyle scored twice for Newport Beach. McKenna Mack, Mallory Collins and Alexa Hourigan also scored, while goalkeeper Blakely Gregory made five saves. O'Beck called the win 'epic,' noting that her team had lost to Irvine Patriot several times earlier in the season. Two years ago, Patriot also had beaten Newport Beach 12-5 in the Junior Olympics 12s championship match with many of the same girls participating.. 'It's a testament to what Kevin Ricks is doing with the 12U girls, and what Carolyn [Doyle] is doing with the 10U girls,' O'Beck said. 'They don't just show up and we win. It's a long process. It takes a village.' Cami Chomchavalit had three steals for Newport, in a game that was within a goal for the entire second half. Kate Bambury and Skylar Shim led Patriot with two goals each. The Newport Beach 10-and-under girls beat San Clemente 14-8 in the gold medal match of that age division. Center Hattie Doyle, the daughter of coach Carolyn Doyle, led with 11 goals and at least seven exclusions drawn. Logan Cuyler scored twice for Newport Beach, and Karsen Parole added a goal. Goalkeeper Leila Meyer made 14 saves for the winners, who also got a team-best three steals from Cameron Schwer and a steal and two assists from Wallis Williamson. Hattie Doyle, Parole, Williamson, Cuyler and Meyer won their second straight national championship at the 10U division. 'It feels really good to keep our title, because we've been working so hard,' Hattie Doyle said. Harbor Doyle, Catherine Adey, Sydney Schwer, Vivian Paglia, Piper Kliszewski and Maryn Mack also contributed for Newport Beach. Carolyn Doyle said the squad hadn't lost against an all-girls team all year. 'We grind,' she said. 'We don't take it lightly just because we're 10s. We try to prepare them for next year.' Like the Mack girls, Doyle also had all three of her daughters earn gold medals on Sunday. Soon enough, her son Duke may be in the mix, though he's only 2 years old now. Doyle played high school water polo with Ashley Parole (now Meyer), whose daughter was the 10U goalie Leila Meyer. Ashley's brother is Brandon, who also played for Newport Harbor and was an assistant coach for the 10Us, where he coached his daughter Karsen. 'It's all a family affair,' Carolyn Doyle said.
Los Angeles Times
23-07-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Newport Beach 12-and-under boys nab silver at USA Water Polo Junior Olympics
IRVINE — The Newport Beach Water Polo Club 12-and-under boys certainly became more than familiar with Del Mar during the course of the club season. The teams played six times, and Tuesday's gold medal match of the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics might have been the closest of all. In the end, Del Mar goalkeeper Braxton Harp came up big. Harp earned MVP honors, making two saves in a penalty shootout that Del Mar won 4-1 at Woollett Aquatics Center. The teams were tied 10-10 after regulation, but only Pierce Clymer could score for Newport Beach in the shootout that followed. 'Honestly, they played their hearts out,' Newport Beach 12U coach Konstantinos Koulouris said of his silver-medal winners. 'They played so good. We were locked in from the beginning and very focused. I'm so proud of them for all of the performances that they had the whole weekend. It's hard to beat a team that you've lost to four times, you know.' Del Mar improved to 4-2 against Newport Beach in the club season, including an 11-9 victory in the Junior Olympic quarterfinals on Monday. But the locals from Newport didn't quit there, beating Mission in a play-in game to the semifinals, where they edged Vanguard 7-7 (3-1 in a shootout) on Tuesday morning. Clymer led Newport Beach with four goals in the gold medal match, and Tanner Thomas scored three. Dalton Horne added a pair of goals. Playing at center, Evan Shackelford scored a late goal that gave Newport a 10-9 lead, and he also drew eight exclusions and a penalty shot in the final. 'Obviously, I want to score, that's my priority,' Shackelford said. 'But if I have to, I'll let go of the ball if [the defender] is on my back all of the time. I just want to shoot and score and celebrate with my teammates.' Shackelford and Thomas helped Newport Beach foul out three Del Mar players. Del Mar finished the game without any substitutes available. 'That's our game plan,' Koulouris said. 'We tried to find small entry passes, draw the ejections and play quick. That's what they did … We tried to make some plays in order to put one more kid out, but it didn't work out. They're 12, and they're under pressure. 'It's a great lesson for them for the years after, right? They're going to play this team again multiple times in the future, maybe until they go to college. Del Mar is a great program, they work hard and they have a great coaching staff.' Goalkeeper Finn Breneman made eight saves for Newport Beach, and Hayden Stout had three steals. Other contributors included Stryder Gregory, Griffin Harvey, Oliver Horowitz, Pierson Nichols, Wyatt Robinson, Logan Jameson and Cameron Berman. Del Mar's Attila McCollum scored a late equalizer to send the match to overtime, one of his three goals, and Jason Robinson led the winners with four goals. All of the Newport Beach players will be aging up to the 14-and-under age group next year, and they do hope to meet up with Del Mar again in the future. 'I think we showed up pretty well,' Thomas said. 'There were definitely things we needed to work on toward the end. It kept on going back and forth, which does get a little stressful at times. A few adjustments we need to make, and hopefully we can be back here in a few years with the same team and win it all.' Other local boys' club teams also grabbed medals during Session One of the Junior Olympics. They included Newport Beach Blue 10U (bronze in platinum division), Newport Beach White 10U (bronze in gold division), Vanguard 12U (bronze in platinum division), Newport Beach White 12U (silver in classic bracket), Corona del Mar 14U (silver in gold division), Costa Mesa Aquatics Club 14U (bronze in invitational bracket), Vanguard Silver 16U (bronze in invitational bracket) and Vanguard Silver 18U (bronze in classic bracket). Session Two, which features co-ed and female age divisions, begins Thursday and runs through Sunday.
