SAN DIEGO – Former San Diego State head water polo coach Carin Crawford will be presented with an Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday, October 18, at the UC San Diego Canyonview Aquatic Center.
Crawford, who compiled a career record of 475-329 (.591), including a 110-90 (.550) mark in league contests, led San Diego State water polo in 24 (1999-2022) of its first 28 years of existence.
Crawford first guided SDSU into the national spotlight in 2007, earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship. The Aztecs placed fourth at the tournament and finished the campaign with a then-program record 29 victories (29-10). The fourth-place finish is the highest for any San Diego State program since the inception of the Directors' Cup in the 1993-94 school year.
In 2008, She led the Scarlet and Black to a second consecutive NCAA tournament, finishing in fifth place to post consecutive top five finishes. For the second year in a row, Crawford's team finished the campaign with a school record 31 wins. In addition, she earned her 200th career victory in a 13-6 win over Maryland on Feb. 9. In 2016, the Aztecs finished the NCAA Championship in eighth place and were ranked No. 14 at the conclusion of the campaign.
She earned her 300th win on Feb. 11, 2012, in an 18-2 win over Sonoma State, her 400th versus UC San Diego in a 5-4 victory on Feb. 12, 2017, and her 475th win in the quarterfinal game of the 2022 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) tournament in an 8-7 overtime decision over Azusa Pacific.
In 23 of her 24 seasons on the Aztecs pool deck, her team completed competition ranked in the top-20 of the American Water Polo Coaches Association (AWPCA) rankings. The only season the team was not in the top-20 of the final rankings was in 2022, when San Diego State finished No. 21.
In each of the last 10 seasons of her tenure, her teams finished with winning conference records and in five of those campaigns, the Aztecs were undefeated in league action.
Prior to water polo becoming an NCAA championship sport in 2001, the Aztecs advanced to the National Collegiate Water Polo Championship in Crawford's first two seasons, finishing fifth (1999) and sixth (2000). A year later, her Aztec team took second at the postseason National Collegiate Select Tournament.
Her players earned 52 All-American honors, 65 all-conference designations, 37 conference players of the week, 19 conference all-tournament team, four NCAA All-Tournament team and three all-region team honors.
A USA Water Polo Sandy Nitta Distinguished Coaching Award recipient in 2016 & 2017 for the Pacific Southwest Zone, the players she coached occupy virtually every place among the top-10 in the program's career records, as well as nearly all of the single-season and single game records.
In the classroom, her student-athletes took home 122 conference all-academic awards, including 68 from the Golden Coast Conference, 117 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-Academic Team honors, and five ACWPC Academic Team Awards (2009, 2012, 2018, 2019 & 2020).
The award ceremony will be held during UCSD’s men’s water polo game vs. Cal State Fullerton which is set to begin at 6 p.m. and will include and an ACWPC Lifetime Achievement Award for Denny Harper, former UCSD water polo coach.