Water Polo Claims National Title

By William Hughes | Wednesday, January 14, 1998

On Sunday November 9, the Dartmouth Water Polo Team rose to the highest rank for water polo clubs teams in the country. After defeating the University of Colorado in a tournament final, the Indians staked their claim as the best club team in the country.

The tournament, held at Williams College, was the Collegiate Water Polo Association National Club Championships. The tournament pitted the 12 best club teams in the country against each other.

The most thrilling win for the Indians occurred on Friday night in the Indians' first match, against the University of Michigan. As returning national champions and the number one seed, Michigan was a daunting opponent. Kenneth Kriwanek '99, the team's leading scorer for the season, said, 'We were basically just trying to keep it close.' Kriwanek and Brent Boehlert '98 stepped up with the necessary scoring touch, while defenseman Danny Alfonso '99 put a clamp down on the powerful Michigan hole-set (their center) to ensure an 8-7 victory. This match, which remained close the whole game, marked the highpoint of the tournament for the Dartmouth team.

Facing arelatively feeble Iowa State crew the next morning, the Indians put them away early. With several subs in the game, they demolished them 14-4.

The Dartmouth swimmers next faced a strong Williams squad, who had handed the Indians their toughest two losses of the past three years, including the Indians' only loss of this season.

The Indians desperately wanted to avenge their loss to Williams two weeks earlier in the New England Tournament. For the first quarter, the game was close, but then the Dartmouth men woke up.

Says Kriwanek, 'we knew we were better and we proved it.' Ryan Utsumi '01 lead a 7-0 run by scoring five unanswered goals, and soon the game was history. Utsumi finished the game with six goals, Boehlert and Kriwanek each added 3, and John Webb '01 contributed one.

The homepool advantage was working for Williams, as their fans did everything possible to fluster the Indians' concentration.

The Williams fans surprisingly did not consider death threats to the Dartmouth athletes to be in poor taste. Joe Fitzgerald claims that his team, unphased by the boisterous Williams crowd, 'played as close to a perfect game as possible... we swam them into the ground.'

By this point, the hardest work was finished. While the University of Colorado was a strong team, the Indians' 11-8 victory over them in the final was comparatively easy. 'The final score of 11-8 is closer than the game actually was.'

For his efforts in this tournament, Boehlert took home the tournament MVP award. Kriwanek and goalie Matt Nelson also received all tournament honors.

With five of seven starters coming back next year, the Dartmouth Water Polo Club expects to build on this championship, the most important victory in the club's history.

Water Polo Claims National Title

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