Hours of practice at Palisades High‘s Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center paid off this week for water polo players at Westside Aquatics.
The Palisades-based club sent two boys teams to the USA National Junior Olympics in Palo Alto and each finished high in its age group.
Playing in the Classic Division, the 12-and-under boys team finished undefeated in pool play and went on to finish sixth out of 48 teams. Coached by Pali High boy and girls coach Adam Blakis, the 12U squad consisted of Palisadians Zachary Hausner, Andrew Outcalt, Maximo Speiser, Stuart Brien, Earl Brien, Oliver Grant, Owen Hooper and Grant Keller along with Jeremiah Francis, Owen Reilly and Daniel Escajeda.
The 16U team, also competing in the Classic Division, went 3-1 in pool play and wound up 12th out of 48 teams under Coach Kirk Lazaruk. The players were Pali High juniors Kian Lotfi, Zach Senator and Mitchell Kim, Pali High sophomores Brandon Epp, Gabe Feizbakhsh, Jacob Lazaruk, Lucas Silva, Isai Elias, Matt Affeld and Quinn Godfredsen, Brentwood School’s Ryan Bub and Levi Kohl and Cyrrianis Muckerheide-Lopez of Venice High.
Westside Aquatics also had three players (Pali High freshman Sammy Speiser and Paul Revere Middle School 8th-graders Theo Trask and Zeke Ramirez) on Bakersfield’s fifth-place 14U team and four players (Pali High senior Griffin Koffman and recent Pali High graduates Alex Feizbakhsh, Luka Kosanin and Matt Rahanma) on Moorpark’s 18U squad, which was 13th out of 24 teams.
Led by Palisadians Aelish Donohue, Julie Hartman, Jackie Au and Mardell Ramirez, Westside Aquatics’ 18U girls water polo team qualified in the gold division and opens pool play Thursday against Corona del Mar.
— Steve Galluzzo
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