Wawrzynski Works on Her Speed

Wawrzynski Working on her Speed
by Dan Albano, Orange County Register

November 6, 2005

LOS ALAMITOS – Drue Wawrzynski surprised some last summer by making the U.S. women's water polo team for the FINA World Championships.
Now, she wants to stick.

For veterans and up-and-comers, gaining experience at events such as this weekend's Women's Speedo Top 40 Festival helps.

Wawrzynski, an emerging threat at center, took advantage of the spotlight Saturday.
The former Los Alamitos and Long Beach State standout, playing for Team Splash, drew two exclusions, a penalty, scored a goal out of 2 meters and recorded an assist in a 10-7 loss to Team Revolution at Joint Forces Training Base.

The 6-foot Wawrzynski used her leg strength to establish and maintain position at 2meters. She was enough of the threat in the second-round match to warrant some help defense. The 21-year-old also showed her ballhandling skills in kick-out passes to the perimeter.
Her challenge is, and has been, her swimming speed.

Before last summer, Wawrzynski's highest advancement through the national team pipeline was the U.S. youth B team in high school.

But she showed some improved speed last summer in training with the national team and earned the backup center job to Moriah Van Norman.

A concussion in FINA World League play before the World Championship set Wawrzynski back, but she still performed her role for Team USA in Montreal. The Americans took silver behind Hungary.

Wawrzynski wants to keep playing with the national team, and knows that improving her speed tops her to-do list. "I'm definitely working on it," she said.


Get weekly schedules and results right in your email box every week! THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE LAST WEEK'S RESULTS ALL OF THIS YEAR'S PRESS RELEASES	Learn more about the Beach Pride Referendum which fully funded all of The Beach's teams. CLICK HERE

Copyrighted by Long Beach State and www.longbeachstate.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
No portion of this site may be reproduced or duplicated without the express written Please contact the webmaster should you find an error or out of date link.

Long Beach State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos