For years, swimming and water polo have been two sports that shared a pool but little else. Yet for a growing number of athletes, the lines between these disciplines are beginning to blur.

Historically, Duke Kahanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, and Brad Schumacher were perhaps the most prominent US Olympians who both swam and played water polo at the highest levels. Matt Biondi was another example. After competing in both swimming and water polo in his youth, Biondi accepted a scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, to swim under head coach Nort Thornton and play water polo for legendary head coach Pete Cutino. As a swimmer, Biondi earned 11 Olympic medals and set world records in five events. As a water polo player, Biondi helped Berkeley win three NCAA Championships, was named All-America four times, and voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1985.

Even so, for a long time, it was often believed that participation in one sport might negatively impact the other.

“There’s an antiquated notion that water polo takes away from swimming…but being open to trying and showing the benefits of doing something different as a means of improving your primary thing has been huge for us,” said Michael Koziol, the head coach of water polo at Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania.

In Texas, Pennsylvania, and beyond, a new generation is embracing the synergy between swimming and water polo and finding ways for the two sports to build upon one another to create more complete athletes and stronger teams. As a result, dual-sport athletes like Biondi are becoming less of an exception.

“I think [swimming and water polo] really do go hand in hand,” said Brandon Dion, the head coach of both swimming and water polo at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas. “Whether you’re using swim season as your conditioning to make you a better water polo player or you’re using water polo as a break from staring at the black line year round, there is definitely room for both,” he said.

Dion grew up swimming in Texas because the state did not yet offer high school water polo. At Fullerton College in California, however, he competed in freestyle sprints, breaststroke, and water polo.

Another Texan, Scott Slay, participated in both sports growing up but admits the swim season was much longer since water polo was not officially sanctioned. As the Texas High School Coaches Association 2024-25 Girls Water Polo Coach of the Year, the Boerne Champion coach now insists that his water polo players swim in the offseason because it improves their conditioning.

“We are doing a lot of sprint training in swimming practice,” Slay said, “but water polo [also] helps build endurance as well as the quick-twitch muscle fibers you need for sprint swimming.”

Koziol, at Germantown Academy, emphasizes that a team-sport mindset can also reinvigorate even the most dedicated swimmers.

One of the biggest advantages is the carryover of camaraderie. Athletes tend to build trust and chemistry in the high-octane world of water polo and bring that energy into the more individual setting of swimming.

Dion said that water polo establishes “the feeling of team and family…so when we roll into swim season, it makes it a little easier to focus on the group as a whole. With the relays, [athletes] know they are [performing] for somebody else – just like they do in water polo – as opposed to just them versus the clock.”

Koziol, in Pennsylvania, sees a similar crossover. “The inherent teamwork in water polo makes it more attractive to kids who are more collaborative,” he said, and when they shift to swimming, the “swimmers then take lessons learned in water polo and focus more on relay[s] or on finding time [to] connect with their teammates between swim sets.”

Slay agreed. “Kids are very close after water polo heading into swimming,” he said. “We’re more like a family than just a team.”

“Water polo is in the fall and swimming is in the winter, so it’s a nice lead-in,” Koziol said.  “Some coaches look at [water polo] as an extended pre-season for swimming, [but] being more of a water polo guy, I view it as two sides of [the same] coin.”

To train athletes effectively in both sports, sprint sets are essential. Dion emphasizes Ultra-Short Race-Pace Training (USRPT), a method of swim training focused on short intervals at race pace or faster. This helps both sports because athletes often sprint between two-meter lines in water polo, and high school swimming primarily focuses on short distances.

Koziol, meanwhile, tends to blend traditional and modern training methods. For example, he will have his water polo players swim with goggles several times a week for conditioning.

All three coaches agree that blending swimming and water polo not only makes athletes faster and fitter – it also keeps them more motivated.

“It’s really hard to do something uninterrupted for eleven-and-a-half months of the year,” Koziol said. “It’s great to break things up so swimmers get their mind off the black line for a few months while increasing their aerobic capacity.”

Dion has also seen his swimmers thrive by adding water polo.

“Maybe they weren’t successful in other team sports,” Dion said, “but they always wanted to be part of a team. It’s an easy transition because they crave that camaraderie. We’ve had success with kids who crave that switch.”

Ultimately, the goal is to showcase the benefits of both sports and “showing them they can be successful in both,” Dion said. “You can apply your swim background to a team sport with a water polo ball, and you can take all this sprint work you’ve done in water polo, put it on a block, and be successful there too.”

Combining swimming and water polo offers more than just a two-season routine; it offers a complete athletic experience.

As Slay put it, “[I think] they do well for each other.”

Even if “water polo players who swim kinda grin and bear it,” Koziol surmised, “[when it’s] time to get the ball back in their hands, they realize the payoff.”

In the pool, as in life, sometimes the best way forward is to look at things from both sides.

 

6/3/2025 11:07:00 AM | Men’s Water Polo USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – The 2025 West Coast Conference men’s water polo game schedule has been released, announced today by the conference office. The Falcons host three home matches, in addition to being the host institution for the 2025 WCC Men’s Water Polo Championships. Air Force’s WCC-opener is Oct. 2 at Pacific. The Falcons then play its first conference home game Oct. 12, hosting Cal Baptist. The ensuing weekend has the Falcons in Southern California to take on LMU on Oct. 17 and Pepperdine on Oct. 19. Air Force plays its final two WCC…

And colleges have taken notice, as the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s senior has committed to run both track and field and cross-country at Southwest Minnesota State University.

“I’ve always enjoyed running in high school, and I had some friends that took that next step, and they really liked it,” Christensen said. “They really encouraged me to take that next step with them and run with them, and they helped me go through the steps and told me what to do, and that’s what made me want to do it. And it’s fun to run. I enjoy doing it.”

Christensen runs the 400-meter and 800-meter races in track and field, as well as the corresponding relays. Christensen’s best time in the 400 is 53.25, and his best time in the 800 is 2:01.19. Christensen also has a personal-best time of 16:44.6 in cross-country. Those times were good enough to convince SMSU that he was a worthy addition to its program.

“I had some friends there,” Christensen said. “And the main thing is they have the programs I want to go for. They have [agriculture] business and agronomy. They’ve got a good program for that, and it’s close to home where I get to see my younger brothers and my family. If I want to come home and watch them play sports or need to help my dad or need to see my mom or something, I can be home in an hour. It’s close to home, I have my friends there, they’ve got the program I want to go for.”

File photo by Fritz Busch
River Valley 4×400 relay runner Noah Christensen battles a Windom runner at the Section 2A Track and Field Championships at Mankato West High School this past Saturday.

Christensen said he got some insight into the program from his friends and from a campus visit.

“Before I committed, I went out and visited their coach, and he was really nice,” he said. “I had some friends there too that told me about it, so I kind of knew what to expect. But he was really nice and they have a good facility. Their whole campus is all indoors, so you don’t ever have to go outside, which is really nice.”

Christensen said it will be challenging to be a two-season athlete at the next level.

“I’m going to be extremely busy,” he said. “It has its pros and cons, obviously, but it will keep me out of trouble anyway … Time management with school and sports. I’m not going to have my parents there to help me with everything, so that’s going to be a learning curve, but I’m sure it’s going to be alright.”

He added that the level up in competition would be an adjustment in college.

“Right now, I’m one of the better athletes that I see,” he said. “But there, I’m probably not going to be one of the top athletes, so that will take some getting used to for sure.”

Christensen hopes to be All-Conference in both track and cross-country during his time at SMSU.

“Getting conference is a big thing out there,” he said. “If you make conference, I’m sure that’s going to be one of my goals for cross-country and track. And just getting good grades and completing my major and minor eventually.”

Christensen also hopes to continue to contribute on the relay teams with the Mustangs.

“Relays are fun,” he said. “It’s fun to go with your guys. My roommate next year at SMSU [Springfield’s Matthew Groebner] is actually on the relay teams with me [at River Valley], so we’re going to be rooming together next year, which will be fun to have somebody I know to talk to and room with. That will be really fun, to have some people you know, but then also have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and make a lot of new friends.”

Christensen and the River Valley 4×400 and 4×800 relay teams will run in the state meet preliminary rounds on Tuesday. Christensen hopes to place in the top nine with the 4×400 team to advance to the finals.

“The 4×800 I don’t really know where we stand, but it will be fun to go against some good teams,” he said.

1. FTC-Telekom managed to complete the hardest job – retain the Champions League title – which most people probably expected them to do in Malta at the weekend. But, as FTC coach Balazs Nyeki commented in his post-game interview, several great teams have failed to achieve that feat in the past, and even if Fradi’s dominance looks even more overwhelming, their moment of triumph only arrived after two hard-fought matches.

Earlier this year, the Hungarian giants were making their games look easy, as they demolished their respective rivals in the first three rounds of the Quarter Final Stage, including a 18-10 thrashing of Barceloneta and a 17-9 rout in Savona.

However, they couldn’t maintain that high level in the spring, as they suffered their first defeat on Day 4 in Barcelona, though only in a shootout, and they had to overcome some minor headaches in a couple of matches. But those experiences only helped them to get ready for the ultimate showdown in Malta.

A year ago, they downed Novi Beograd in a shootout and edged out title-holders Pro Recco in a thrilling final.

This time, they managed to beat CN Marseille and VK Novi Beograd in a way that the last few minutes didn’t offer much drama, as both of their rivals were clearly beaten by the closing stages.

However, both challengers made them suffer. Some in the Budapest camp recalled Hungary’s quarter-final against France at the Doha World Championships, when the Magyars led 8-4 at half-time, just like here, but they went on to miss a series of chances, while the French came back and with Thomas Vernoux’s blasts they caused the biggest upset of the event.

Now, after some rockets by Vernoux – where FTC goalkeeper Soma Vogel looked just as helpless as in February 2024 – the match was becoming very similar, but only until 10-10.

Fradi then stepped up a gear and proved that this team is different, and after making two from eight in man-ups in the second half, they went four from four in the last six minutes to close down the contest.

Then, in the final, after a gruelling battle in the first half that saw five goals apiece, FTC managed to speed up their game – while NBG appeared a little worn out – and a mighty 4-0 rush was too much for the Serbs to handle.

In the end, both teams hit double digits once again (13-11 this time), just like they have done in all their previous five clashes.

The win secured Fradi’s title-defence – the first-ever by a Hungarian side – and they also became the first Magyar club to lift the trophy three times, surpassing Vasas and OSC, which had two titles apiece from the Seventies and Eighties.

Fradi’s last two seasons have been a demonstration of absolute power – last season they went 40-1 across all competitions, and this time they finished with 48-1, so combined that adds up to a staggering 88-2 win-loss total in 90 matches, and they clinched seven trophies along the way.

Back in April, they lost to Barceloneta on penalties, which means they haven’t been defeated in regular time since August 2023, as only Olympiacos could upend them in 32 minutes, in April 2024. So, one loss in four quarters in 90 matches, which is simply astonishing.

2. Krisztian Manhercz’s story doesn’t lack twists, and becoming the MVP this year was the ultimate redemption for Fradi’s powerful forward, who scored six goals in the gold medal match.

Eight years ago, when he was classed as one of the most talented youngsters in Hungarian water polo, he joined Fradi, but it was a complete failure.

He found life under coach Zsolt Varga extremely difficult, and after a while he wasn’t even being named in the match-day squads, so he kind of escaped at the end of the season to find shelter at OSC.

There he matured and became a brilliant player, but however strong the team was that had been built around him, they were unable to win anything.

After losing in successive finals, he joined Marseille last season, where he finally tasted winning on the domestic scene, but the French side fell short in the Champions League.

In the meantime, Zsolt Varga was appointed the head coach of the national team in 2022, and their first job was to sit down and put behind them everything which had ruined their relationship years earlier.

It went so well that, this year, Varga even nominated Manhercz as the new captain of the national team, and Krisztian – or as everyone calls him, ‘Mano’ – also returned home to take a second shot at playing for Fradi.

A totally different chapter started for him in the autumn, as his transition phase was almost invisible – he came up with smooth performances early on and it was like he had been part of the illustrious FTC set-up for years.

Still, Manhercz saved his best displays for the end of the season, and his six goals on Sunday night lifted Fradi when Novi were pushing them really hard.

His no-look strike from an-almost impossible angle appeared to crush Milan Glusac’s confidence. The young NBG goalkeeper had done really well until that point, but he was nowhere near as solid in the remaining time and Fradi hit three more goals in two and a half minutes, which proved decisive.

Manhercz’s feat was even more remarkable as this was his first ever Champions League Final Four, unlike his childhood friend Soma Vogel, who was playing in his sixth Final 8/4. Still, with the skills and the experience he has, this performance was anything but surprising.

3. Novi Beograd reached their third final in four years, but once again they failed to get their hands on the famous trophy. This time it wasn’t Pro Recco – like in 2022 and 2023 – who denied them, instead it was this season’s favourites, Ferencvaros.

Their unreal march to the final looked very much like the Serbian national team’s incredible run in Paris. At last summer’s Olympics, few people – if anyone – thought before the start that the Serbs would stand a chance, but they ended up on the top of the podium.

Somewhat similarly, NBG had recently lost a lot of key players (in the summer), including their Spanish scoring machine Alvaro Granados, and the freshly-crowned Olympic champion Nikola Jaksic.

They admittedly only dreamt of making the Final Four in the autumn, however, they showed tremendous strength and fighting spirit during the season – which is anything but surprising from a Serbian team.

Zivko Gocic, who captained the 2016 Olympic winning team in Rio, has already proven that he’s just as influential as a coach as he was as a player.

The NBG mastermind has managed to build a team that has the finest blend of experienced veterans and extremely talented youngsters.

Team effort prevailed in the Quarter Final Stage against classy rivals like Olympiacos, Marseille and Jadran and was enough to upset Barceloneta and land a place in the final.

And while they could keep up their tough, aggressive defending and precise execution in offence, they were on equal terms with FTC.

However, after 20 minutes or so, they began to run out of steam, and Nikola Lukic, who scored six goals just like Manhercz, started missing his shots, but first and foremost they were unable to slow Fradi down.

And it was clear that once the Magyars were gearing up, the game would shift to their favourite territory – and their 0-4 rush brutally demonstrated that.

While in the previous three years, the Novi players (a totally different line-up) might have been disappointed to fall short again and again, this year’s silver should be seen as a tremendous feat.

It’s not a big consolation, but a telling fact that this was their fourth appearance in the F8/4 and they lost to the eventual champions every time (a year ago, Fradi beat them in the semis). So, one may put this into a different perspective – you have to beat Novi Beograd to lift the trophy.

4. Zodiac CNAB took home the bronze for the fifth time in their history. They may have thrashed Marseille 19-9 on the last day, and showed their better face once more, but they were anything but satisfied.

Losing to Novi Beograd in the semis was a very bitter pill to swallow, as they were unable to perform at the level they hit in the spring, which saw them become the only team in the whole season to force a draw against the mighty Ferencvaros and then beat them in the shootout.

The Spanish side have also had a tremendous run this season, losing just one single match in regular time across all competitions (in Budapest, to Fradi), and only a saved penalty denied them a coveted place in the final in Malta (NBG won the shootout 5-4).

Another grand battle with Fradi would have been a worthy ending for this team, which is likely to be transformed once again this summer. And CNAB are the prime example that in the gruelling world of the Champions League, even a near-perfect season from a brilliant team cannot guarantee a (really) happy ending.

5. Marseille’s first appearance on the grand stage landed them in fourth place. In recent years, it has become a rarity that a team could achieve something big during their first try (Fradi did manage to win in 2019 on their debut). Still, their relentless fighting spirit forced a balanced match against FTC in the semis – now they really need to work on their away-game performances.

Reaching the finals relied mostly on their fine home wins. Away from Marseille, they were 2-4 in the two stages combined, so add the results of the Final Four and you are at 2-6 – which is a sharp contrast to their 5-1 run in front of their loud and passionate fans in the south of France.

6. OK, let us add a quick bonus talking point – as we witnessed history in another aspect at the weekend, as when the final concluded, a century-old era came to an end too.

The game between FTC and Novi was the last one played on a field 30m long. The new rules – already applied at the recent World Cup matches – curtailed the men’s playing field to 25m.

Once water polo moved to pools from lakes (where the ball had to be placed on top of boats to score), the field’s length was set at 30m and that has been in use ever since.

A new chapter begins now, and we have seen several changes to the rules over the past decades, with many being real game-changers, like introducing quarters instead of halves, abandoning the so-called standing rule, switching from a leather ball to a rubber one, creating possession and exclusion time, offering time-outs and so on – but the field’s measurements had never been touched (in the men’s game).

Now that will change too – and time will tell how we’ll remember the last game played in a 30m field.

–

Watch water polo action live on www.euroaquaticstv.com and stay up-to-date with live results/tables and real-time updates through the European Aquatics App. Download it here: Google Play.

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Santa Clara University men’s water polo team announced Tuesday its 2025 schedule, which includes 11 home dates, six West Coast Conference games and participation in three marquee tournaments.
 
The Broncos (13-11, 2-4 WCC) will host three WCC games, two against last season’s top-two finishers in the standings – Pacific (Oct. 5) and Pepperdine (Nov. 14). They’ll also host major non-conference clashes against nationally ranked programs UC Davis (Sept. 27), UC Santa Barbara (Oct. 3), Long Beach State (Oct. 11), and Stanford (Nov. 5). Santa Clara will also host its annual Julian Fraser Memorial tournament on Oct. 24-26.
 
Single-game tickets for all 2025 home games are available now. Click here to purchase tickets online, call the Broncos ticket office at (408-554-4660), or email broncotickets@scu.edu.
 
“As a coaching staff, we are really excited for what is in store this coming season,” said Santa Clara University head coach Keith Wilbur. “Between tournaments, non-conference head-to-head games and conference play within the WCC, we face a lot of really strong opponents in 2025.”
 
Santa Clara kicks off its season in August with two games in one day on Aug. 30. It takes on Fresno Pacific before facing host UC Merced in the Central Valley. It then heads to the annual Princeton Invitational on the East Coast on Sept. 5-7, where it’ll play three games in three days. Two weeks later, the Broncos head to Southern California to take part in the MPSF Invite against some of the top programs in the country, hosted by UCLA this season.
 
“In my time at Santa Clara, this will be our toughest strength of schedule in a season, and the team is really looking forward to the challenge,” added Wilbur.
 
WCC road trips to California Baptist (Oct. 16), San Jose State (Oct. 18) and Air Force (Nov. 8) round out the regular season schedule. The third annual WCC Tournament will be held on Nov. 21-23 on the campus of the Air Force Academy in Colorado. The NCAA Championship is being hosted this season by Stanford from Dec. 5-7.