SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo hauled in 17 individual academic honors as well as a team honor from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) for the 2023-24 school year. The ACWPC announced its 2024 Women's All-Academic Teams from its office in Bridgeport, Pa., on Thursday.
The 17 Aztecs who were recognized are the third most the program has garnered, after the 20 and 21 honors it earned in 2022 and 2021, respectively. The Aztecs' 17 individual honors are the third most among the eight teams in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC).
The ACWPC recognizes individual honorees in three categories: Outstanding (GPAs between 3.71-4.00), Superior (3.41-3.70) and Excellent (3.20-3.40). To qualify, the student-athletes had to have been a member of the team during the 2023-24 school year and have competed in at least one contest.
Juniors Amanda Chambers, Rose Kanemy, and Brooke Lee, and Daphne Wilder, sophomore Claudia Valdes and freshmen Lucy Bullock and Mary Comiskey earned inclusion on the Outstanding Team.
Seniors Danni Croteau and Kendall Houck, sophomores Tiaare Ahovelo, Hannah Bell, Sydney Gish, Mandy Lagerlof and Shannon Murphy, as well as freshman Mimi Stoupas are among the Superior Team honorees.
Freshman Sammi Byers earned inclusion as an Excellent Team designee.
Houck has been recognized by the ACWPC in each of her four years on The Mesa. Chambers, Croteau, Kanemy and Lee receive the distinction for the third time. Gish, Lagerlof, Murphy and Valdes earned their second awards, while Ahovelo, Bell, Bullock, Byers, Comiskey, Stoupas and Wilder picked up their initial honors.
As a team, the 2024 Aztecs finished the year with a cumulative GPA of 3.43, among the 20 highest team GPAs in the nation, and earned team all-academic honors from the ACWPC. It is the seventh year in a row, and eighth time since 2009, that the Aztecs, as a team, have been honored by the organization for their work in the classroom.
Earlier this month, San Diego State water polo athletes earned a program record 19 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) All-Academic honors. Since the program's inaugural season of 1995, only four other San Diego State water polo teams have earned double digit conference academic honors in a single year; the 2022 (15), 2021 & 2023 (16) and the 2019 squad, which garnered 11 GCC All-Academic awards.
2024 Association of College Water Polo Coaches All-Academic Team
San Diego State individual honorees
Kendall Houck****
Amanda Chambers***
Danni Croteau***
Rose Kanemy***
Brooke Lee***
Sydney Gish**
Mandy Lagerlof**
Shannon Murphy**
Claudia Valdes**
Tiaare Ahovelo*
Hannah Bell*
Lucy Bullock*
Sammi Byers*
Mary Comiskey*
Mimi Stoupas*
Daphne Wilder*
*- career ACWPC All-Academic honors