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Trio of Gauchos Earn All-Big West Honors

Story Links IRVINE, Calif. — The Big West announced its 2025 Women’s Water Polo all-conference teams Friday, honoring three UC Santa Barbara student-athletes. Annie Kuester earned a spot on the All-Big West Second Team, Imani Clemons earned All-Big West Honorable Mention, and Bella Mady was named to the conference’s All-Freshman team. This […]

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IRVINE, Calif. — The Big West announced its 2025 Women’s Water Polo all-conference teams Friday, honoring three UC Santa Barbara student-athletes. Annie Kuester earned a spot on the All-Big West Second Team, Imani Clemons earned All-Big West Honorable Mention, and Bella Mady was named to the conference’s All-Freshman team. This is the first time since 2019 that the Gauchos have had three all-conference honorees, and this year’s honors are the first in each Gaucho’s respective careers.
 
One of Santa Barbara’s captains and the focal point of their attack this season, Kuester started the season hot and just never cooled off, scoring 60 goals on the year, the first Gaucho to reach that number since Sarah Snyder scored 66 in 2019. Kuester opened the season with four consecutive hat-tricks, then tallied a five-goal game against Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 1, more than half of her team’s goals in the 9-8 win. She was just as unstoppable in conference play, scoring at least once in each of Santa Barbara’s Big West matches, including three at UC San Diego, three at Cal State Fullerton and five at UC Irvine, a haul which earned her the title of Big West Player of the Week. On the year, Kuester finished eighth in the conference in total goals and 10th in total points (goals plus assists), with 81.
 
Clemons was just as dominant as Kuester in conference action this season, tying her senior classmate with 19 goals in Big West games to share the title of Gauchos’ leading conference scorer. The center came alive down the stretch, scoring four goals in each of the final regular-season games, two of eight hat-tricks on the season. In March, she scored eight goals in three days with three against Hawai’i and a career-best five against UC Davis. Earlier in the year, she also tallied four against Indiana. Her 50 goals on the season make 2025 the first time since 2013 that two Gauchos have reached the half-century mark in the same year.
 
They nearly had three members in the 50-goal club this year, as Mady put together a tremendous rookie campaign, tallying 45 goals in her first year of collegiate water polo. The 45 tallies are the most by a UC Santa Barbara freshman since Samantha Murphy and Jessie Porter’s excellent 2013 seasons, where Murphy scored 78 and Porter 51. In 2025, Mady’s 45 goals were the second-most by any Big West rookie, behind only Freshman of the Year Ema Vernoux, of Hawai’i. Mady made a big splash early, scoring four goals in each of her first two games as a Gaucho and recording at least one goal in each of her first nine collegiate games, including four hat-tricks in that span. She tallied the first five-goal game of her career against Villanova, then announced herself to the conference with a three-goal game against Long Beach State in what was her first-ever Big West match. Mady ended the season on a five-game scoring streak, including a goal on her Big West Championship debut in the quarterfinal against UC Irvine.
 



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Parks board approves court reservation fees

Community members can now reserve the basketball courts at Baker, Bent, Foster, Harbert, James, Larimer, Lovelace and Mason parks and half the volleyball courts at Clark Street Beach.  The Parks and Recreation Board approved new fees at its May 15 meeting.  Reservations can be made on a first-come, first-served basis, similar to the city’s existing […]

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May 23, 2025

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Community members can now reserve the basketball courts at Baker, Bent, Foster, Harbert, James, Larimer, Lovelace and Mason parks and half the volleyball courts at Clark Street Beach. 

The Parks and Recreation Board approved new fees at its May 15 meeting. 

Reservations can be made on a first-come, first-served basis, similar to the city’s existing pickleball and tennis court reservation structure. Reservations have a two-hour maximum. 



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Bode concludes standout career with third All-America 10K finish in a row

Story Links GENEVA, Ohio – Senior Alison Bode of the St. Olaf College women’s track and field team concluded her standout career by earning her third consecutive All-America accolade in the 10,000-meter run with a seventh-place performance on Thursday evening at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships […]

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May 23, 2025

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GENEVA, Ohio – Senior Alison Bode of the St. Olaf College women’s track and field team concluded her standout career by earning her third consecutive All-America accolade in the 10,000-meter run with a seventh-place performance on Thursday evening at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the SPIRE Institute.

After entering the meet as the No. 15 seed, Bode was between fifth and eighth at the conclusion of all 25 laps on her way to breaking her previous school record by nearly 10 seconds in 34:54.92. The senior’s seventh-place finish was the best national performance of her three showings in the event after she placed ninth in 2024 and eighth in 2023.

Bode’s time of 34:54.92 made her the first Ole to break 35 minutes in the event and her seventh-place performance was the third-highest finish by an Ole in the event. With the seventh-place finish, Bode became the second Ole outdoors and the third indoor or outdoors to be a three-time All-American in the same event.

Bode is one of two Oles (Emma Lee ’13 – 2011-13) to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships three times in the 10,000-meter run and one of just three different student-athletes in program history to run in the national meet in the event. The seventh-place result earned St. Olaf two points in the team standings to put the team in a tie for 27th after day one of the three-day meet.

Junior Isabel Wyatt will run in the prelims of the 800-meter run on Friday, May 23 at 3:15 p.m. CT on day two of the championships.

 



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Fitzgerald books spot in final of 3,000-meter steeplechase at NCAA Outdoor Championships

Story Links GENEVA, Ohio – Junior Ignatius Fitzgerald of the St. Olaf College men’s track and field team qualified for the finals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase after finishing ninth in the prelims at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday evening at the SPIRE Institute. Competing […]

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May 23, 2025

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GENEVA, Ohio – Junior Ignatius Fitzgerald of the St. Olaf College men’s track and field team qualified for the finals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase after finishing ninth in the prelims at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday evening at the SPIRE Institute.

Competing in his first national meet in track and field in a field that included five All-Americans, Fitzgerald grabbed the fourth and final automatic qualifying spot in the second heat with a time of 8:59.81 to book his spot in the final. The final will be contested at 3:40 p.m. CT on Friday, May 23.

After the first heat, Fitzgerald needed to finish in the top four or run faster than 8:55.41. to claim a spot in the final, as the top-four finishers in each heat plus the next four fastest times moved on. In a heat that saw a handful of runners lead at the lap splits, Fitzgerald oscillated between second and sixth at the eight intervals before running a 1:04.48 final lap – the fastest full lap in either heat – to secure his spot in the final.

Fitzgerald is the fifth different Ole to qualify for the national meet in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and entered the meet as the No. 7 seed with his program-record time of 8:52.30 from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Championships earlier this month. This year marked the third consecutive season St. Olaf has had a national qualifier in the event (Will Kelly ’24 in 2023 and 2024).

 



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Zimmerman brothers propel SLUH to 24th Missouri Water Polo district title

By Greg Uptain | Special to the Post-Dispatch SAPPINGTON — Evan Zimmerman was happy there was no late-game drama this year. One year after Zimmerman and his brother Nick helped engineer St. Louis University High’s heart stopping, last-minute win in the Missouri Water Polo district championship, they were able to breathe a little easier. Evan Zimmerman, […]

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May 23, 2025

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SAPPINGTON — Evan Zimmerman was happy there was no late-game drama this year.

One year after Zimmerman and his brother Nick helped engineer St. Louis University High’s heart stopping, last-minute win in the Missouri Water Polo district championship, they were able to breathe a little easier.

Evan Zimmerman, a senior, popped in a game-high three goals and Nick, a junior, scored two more as the Junior Billikens jumped out to a nine-goal lead on the way to an 11-4 win over De Smet in this year’s MWP final Thursday at Lindbergh High.

“I was happy,” said Evan Zimmerman, who plans to play club water polo at Boston College. “The game didn’t go as well as we hoped, but I think we still laid down the law throughout the game. I didn’t have to be too stressed; I was just going out there and having fun with my friends.”

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Last season, Nick Zimmerman scored the game-winning goal with 29.6 seconds left and Evan produced the game’s biggest defensive play in the final seconds and turned it into an empty-net goal in an 11-9 title-game win over Parkway Central.

“It was just really awesome,” Nick Zimmerman said. “Last year, we won it in a thriller and then today we were able to finally sort of destroy them.”

SLUH adds to trophy collection

Top-seed SLUH (18-3) extended its own record of MWP championships with No. 24.

Of the 24 district finals to take place since the turn of the century, the Jr. Bills have played in a whopping 21 of them with a record of 15-6.

“It doesn’t get old. It’s a different experience every time,” SLUH coach John Penilla said. “I just told them this is a special team because we’ll never be together again and that’s tough because they were an exceptional group. They started on Day 1 as good, so it was a challenge for all of us to push each other to become better, and I think we did.”

De Smet’s magical run ends

Few outside the locker room gave seventh-seeded De Smet (10-12) much of a chance of even making the district final after an uneven regular season.

But the Spartans got hot at the right time and reeled off wins over No. 2 seed Chaminade in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Lindbergh in the semifinals to reach the title game for the third time in program history and first since the 2010 team won it all.

“It’s corny and cliché, but we had nothing to lose, and I truly think they played that way,” De Smet coach Taylor Swyers said. “One of the big things is one of our top players, Jacob Orr, broke his ankle over spring break so he was out for almost the entire season. He didn’t play until about two weeks ago, and it took a couple of games, but once he got into it, everybody just sort of settled into place.”

Fast start for Jr. Bills

Luke Gill scored just 50 seconds into the final and Evan Zimmerman tallied twice for a 3-0 SLUH lead after one quarter.

Derek Nester, Joe Azar and Owen Gruninger scored second quarter goals to make it 6-0 halftime, while Danny McAuliffe and Evan and Nick Zimmerman scored in the first five minutes of the third to give the Jr. Bills a commanding 9-0 lead.

That kind of start was paramount for SLUH so that it wouldn’t let De Smet get any momentum going to continue the wave the Spartans were riding on coming into the game.

“I knew if we give them any glimmer, the crowd was gonna get loud. It was so much fun. Great atmosphere,” Penilla said. “They were fired up. You look at the one and seven seed, but you never know. They played terrific water polo to get to this point.”







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Cooper Vennemann (3) of De Smet looks to score against SLUH in the Missouri Water Polo Boys championship match at Lindbergh High School in Sappington on Thursday May 22, 2025.




No quit in De Smet

Despite the huge deficit, the Spartans dug in and connected on three straight goals — two by Noah Schlaefer and one by Cooper Venneman — to cut it to 9-3.

But Nick Zimmerman and Gruninger answered that run before Henry Brinkley scored the game’s final goal for De Smet.

Swyers was pleased by the pluckiness his undermanned squad showed with the game already in-hand for SLUH.

“Every program has different challenges, including us,” he said. “Don’t have a pool, barely have a JV team, playing six or seven guys basically. At the end of the day, we as coaches don’t let that become an excuse. We don’t have a ton of guys, but the guys we have are doing everything we ask. I think that’s a perfect encapsulation of the way they played here.”

Defensive end shines

Penilla was happy with the way his defense played, especially not allowing De Smet to score a goal until 58.2 seconds remained in the third quarter.

“It’s a team defense and they executed to perfection today,” Penilla said. “It starts with Danny, but it’s also Derek Nester and it’s Nick Robert in goal and it’s helping from all these other places with Luke Gill and Owen.”

That SLUH defense was anchored by McAuliffe, the MWP Blue Conference player of the year.

“Last year, I thought I was a little bit underrated, so I really wanted to come out and show everybody what I could do,” said McAuliffe, who plans to play club water polo at Mizzou. “The past two games were great. We played well as a team. Defense wins games.”

Swyers was also pleased with the play of goalie Kellen Duffy, who made several big saves and kept the final deficit from being much larger.

“Last year was his first year ever playing water polo,” Swyers said. “His first game ever we got shellacked by Chaminade. Fast forward to this year, he wins us the Chaminade game, keeps us in the last one and this one was probably the best he’s played.”

SLUH’s whirlwind week

The district championship win was part of a memorable late-season run by the SLUH athletic program.

Earlier this week, the Jr. Bills golf team won the school’s first state title since 1952 and was led by the sizzling individual medalist performance of Harrison Zipfel.

And not long after things wrapped up in the Lindbergh pool, the SLUH volleyball team took care of the host Flyers in the gymnasium right down the hall to advance to the Class 1 semifinals.

“This time of year is crazy,” Jr. Bills director of athletics Chris Muskopf said. “We’ve got exams. We graduate Sunday. But it’s been a great spring. We won rugby also, which is not a big attention getter, per se. And we made it to the semis in lacrosse and ultimate frisbee.”

Beyond just this week, it has been a banner year for Jr. Bills athletics after state championships won by the soccer and swimming teams — the latter of which also featured the Zimmerman brothers — in the fall.

“It’s just been an amazing year for us,” Muskopf said. “It’s about this (the postgame huddle), right? Yeah, they’ve got a trophy sitting in with them, but it’s about the connections and relationships. That’s what makes it great for us.”



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Blue Jays Open NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Story Links GENEVA, OH – The Johns Hopkins men’s outdoor track and field team kicked off competition Thursday on Day One of the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with junior Connor Oiler as the team’s sole competitor.   Oiler posted a time of 9:02.00 in the 3000-meter […]

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May 23, 2025

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GENEVA, OH – The Johns Hopkins men’s outdoor track and field team kicked off competition Thursday on Day One of the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with junior Connor Oiler as the team’s sole competitor.
 
Oiler posted a time of 9:02.00 in the 3000-meter steeplechase but did not advance to Friday’s final.
 
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Saturday for the final day of the championships. Oluwademilade Adeniran is set to compete in the triple jump at 11 a.m., aiming for a podium finish. Later in the day, Emmanuel Leblond will take to the track in the 5000-meter run at 4 p.m., with hopes of capturing a national title.
 



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The Olympic Club Announces Women’s Cutino Award Finalists; Winners Revealed June 7 In San Francisco

Story Links San Francisco, CA – May 22 – The Olympic Club has announced the women’s finalists for the Peter J. Cutino Award, an iconic honor in NCAA water polo to recognize the best men’s and women’s players each year. The women’s finalists are Emily Ausmus (USC), Tilly Kearns (USC), and Ryann Neushul (Stanford). Emily Ausmus was named MPSF […]

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2025 Women's Cutino Finalists

San Francisco, CA – May 22 – The Olympic Club has announced the women’s finalists for the Peter J. Cutino Award, an iconic honor in NCAA water polo to recognize the best men’s and women’s players each year. The women’s finalists are Emily Ausmus (USC), Tilly Kearns (USC), and Ryann Neushul (Stanford).

Emily Ausmus was named MPSF Newcomer of the Year and a member of the All-MPSF First Team. The freshman attacker scored in all 34 games for USC to become the fastest Trojan to reach the 100-goal mark on her way to setting a school single-season record with 114 goals. Ausmus also handed out 55 assists, stole the ball 46 times, and went 28-2 on sprints this season. En route to the NCAA Championship game, she scored three goals with two assists and two steals in the national quarterfinal against Harvard.

Tilly Kearns became a three-time All-MPSF First Team honoree this season for USC. The redshirt senior center scored 100 goals and finishes her career ranked third all-time in scoring for the Trojans with 262 goals. In addition to the scoring, Kearns earned 62 exclusions and notched 48 steals on the year. She earned NCAA All-Tournament First Team honors and was instrumental in propelling USC to the NCAA Championship game by scoring five goals and earning six exclusions in the national semifinal against UCLA.

Ryann Neushul was named MPSF Player of the Year and won the NCAA Championship this season with Stanford. The redshirt senior attacker scored 60 goals to push her career total to 228 which stands in fifth place all-time for the Cardinal. She claimed NCAA All-Tournament First Team honors after five goals, four assists, two blocks, and two steals throughout the run to a title. Neushul finishes her career as Stanford’s only four-time NCAA Champion as well as a four-time NCAA All-Tournament Team member and four-time All-MPSF Team selection.

The men’s finalists were announced previously and include Ryder Dodd (UCLA), Max Miller (USC), and Mihailo Vukazic (University of the Pacific).

The Cutino Awards will take place on the evening of Saturday, June 7 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The ceremony will be live streamed at Overnght.com. The broadcast will feature interviews with finalists, athletes, coaches plus the Cutino Award ceremony in its entirety. Those interested in attending the awards can register by clicking here.

Established in 1999 by The Olympic Club, the Cutino Award is given annually to the top men’s and women’s NCAA Division I water polo players as voted on by coaches from across the country. The namesake of the award is a legend in United States water polo history, with eight NCAA titles as head coach at Cal. The Olympic Club has a long and distinguished competitive water polo history, a tradition that continues today in the pool with some of the best age-group teams in the world.

ABOUT THE OLYMPIC CLUB

Founded in 1860, The Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being among the oldest athletic clubs in America. Since its birth, The Olympic Club has fostered amateur athletics in San Francisco. The Winged “O” currently fields teams in 17 sports. Additionally, The Olympic Club has hosted five U.S. Opens, and looks forward to hosting the 2028 PGA Championship and 2032 Ryder Cup at its world-class Lakeside Clubhouse golf courses.

 



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