Men’s Water Polo Has Five Selected To All-America

    LONG BEACH, Calif. – As a unit, LBSU accomplished their first GCC Championship in their short history in the conference, along with their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1991. It is only right LBSU also accompanied their success with outstanding individual honors.

    Junior Austin Stewart was named to the All-America Second Team after topping his 52 goals from last season with 56 goals this year. Stewart ended the campaign scoring a goal in their last 11 games on the season. In addition, Stewart scored a goal in 23 of the 26 total games the Beach played this year, having scored multiple goals in 13 of those contests as well. Stewart amounted seven hat tricks on the season, scoring six goals in one contest early in the campaign. Later on, Stewart came up one goal short of the LBSU record of most goals scored in a game (8 goals) as he scored seven goals against UC Davis to be tied for second most.

    Senior Keegan Wicken was elected Honorable Mention All-America as he also scored more goals this year with 24 in comparison to last year where he bagged 16 goals. The senior also had five assists on the season along with 10 steals to help out the Beach. Wicken had six multi-goal games on the season, along with three hat tricks. Wicken had a season-high four goals against UC Santa Barbara early on in the season.

    Senior Austin Stevenson was also elected onto the Honorable Mention for All-America. Stevenson capped off his senior year totaling 19 goals on the season with two assists. In addition, Stevenson also added six steals to his resume. Stevenson ended his LBSU run having scored in the last six of eight games. Stevenson had five multi-goal games this past season along with a hat trick against UCLA.

    Sophomore keeper Marwan Darwish had the privilege of being elected onto the Honorable Mention All-America list. Darwish totaled 167 saves on the season as he led the Beach to a 14-12 record. Darwish posted a save percentage of .600 or higher in three of the last four games with his highest save percentage coming against Pepperdine in the semifinal of the Golden Coast Conference Tournament. That same game, Darwish allowed the least amount of goals in a season as Pepperdine was only able to net four goals.

    Freshman Garrett Zaan was elected Honorable Mention All-America to round off the list for the Beach. Zaan ended up scoring in 13 of the last 16 total games played for the Beach. Zaan scored his first goal against Stanford and went on to score in 11 straight games for the Beach. Zaan ended up finishing the season having scored 25 total goals along with two assists. Zaan accompanied his goals and assists with seven steals. Zaan had eight multi-goal games, along with two hat tricks topping four goals in a game twice.

    Austin Stewart is the first player for the Beach to be named All-America Second Team since 2016 when Nolan McConnell was elected. As far as Zaan, Stevenson, Wicken, and Darwish go, they are the first to be elected to Honorable Mention since Ricardo Guimares, Dan Matulis, Dimitrios Lappas, and Pavo Ljepopio in 2014. This is also the first since 2014 where the Beach had five or more players elected into the All-America Honors.

Calendar

Players Mentioned

Marwan Darwish

Austin Stevenson

Austin Stewart

Keegan Wicken

Garrett Zaan

Long Beach State University Athletics