Laguna’s varsity goalkeeper, Quinn Winter, was named the most valuable player as the local SET club squad captured the 16’s division with a 7-6 win over Santa Barbara’s 805 Club on July 29 to secure the gold medal honors at USA Water Polo’s Junior Olympics. SET’s 18’s team composed of most of the Laguna graduating seniors finished third after beating the Santa Barbara 805 team 10-5. SET had lost the semifinal contest to eventual champion So Cal in a shootout after the contest was tied 6-6 after play concluded. The So Cal team included a number of Orange County players from Mater Dei, Foothill and other Orange County schools. The event finals were held in Avery Pool at Stanford University.
The younger Laguna players competed for the Laguna Beach Water Polo Foundation teams, with 14’s losing in the finals 9-4 to Pacific Coast Riptides from Huntington Beach, 12’s defeating Commerce 9-7 for gold (Emerson Hensley MVP) and 10’s finishing 8th.
Also last week, recent Laguna graduate Isabel Riches was in Hungary with the Great Britain Junior Women’s Water Polo team, where they finished third in a European tournament. Riches will be attending Brown this fall.
