SAN DIEGO – The 2025 edition of the San Diego State water polo team has garnered 15 individual academic honors, in addition to a team honor, from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) for the 2024-25 school year.
The 15 Aztecs who were recognized bring head coach Dana Ochsner’s three-year total to 47, are tied for the fourth most the program has garnered in a single year, and those 15 individual honors are the fourth most among the eight teams in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) this past season.
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-athlete had to have been a member of the team during the 2024-25 school year and competed in at least one contest.
Seniors Amanda Chambers, Rose Kanemy and Brooke Lee, junior Claudia Valdes and freshman Sierra Johnson earned inclusion on the Outstanding Team.
Juniors Tiaare Ahovelo, Hannah Bell, Sydney Gish, Megan Holcomb, Aiyana Mendoza and Shannon Murphy, as well as sophomores Lucy Bullock and Mimi Stoupas and freshman Julianna Stark are among the Superior Team honorees.
Senior Luna Sarmiento earned inclusion as an Excellent Team designee.
Chambers, Kanemy and Lee have been recognized by the ACWPC in each of their four years on The Mesa. Gish, Holcomb, Murphy and Valdes receive the distinction for the third time. Ahovelo, Bell, Bullock and Stoupas earned their second awards, while Johnson, Mendoza, Sarmiento and Stark picked up their initial honor.
As a team, the 2025 Aztecs finished the year with a cumulative GPA of 3.38, among the highest team GPAs in the nation, and earned team all-academic honors from the ACWPC. It is the eighth year in a row, and the ninth time since 2009, that the Aztec program has been honored by the organization for its work in the classroom.
Earlier this month, San Diego State water polo athletes earned a program record 18 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) All-Academic honors. Since the program's inaugural season of 1995, only five other San Diego State water polo teams have earned double-digit conference academic honors in a single year; the 2024 (19), 2023 (16), 2022 (15), 2021 (16) and the 2019 squad, which garnered 11 GCC All-Academic awards.
2025 Association of College Water Polo Coaches All-Academic Team
San Diego State Individual Honorees
Amanda Chambers****
Rose Kanemy****
Brooke Lee****
Sydney Gish***
Megan Holcomb***
Shannon Murphy***
Claudia Valdes***
Tiaare Ahovelo**
Hannah Bell**
Lucy Bullock**
Mimi Stoupas**
Sierra Johnson*
Aiyana Mendoza*
Luna Sarmiento*
Julianne Stark*
*- career ACWPC All-Academic honors