USAFA water polo team chosen to finish 5th

Senior Alex Churnside led the Falcons with 77 points in the water polo team's 2008 season and ranks among the top 25 career scorers in Air Force history. The Academy was chosen to finish fifth in the Western Water Polo Association for the third straight year in a preseason poll of the conference's head coaches. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Academy water polo team chosen to finish 5th in conference

Published Aug. 31, 2009
By Melissa McKeown
Athletic Communications

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- For the third straight year, the 19th-ranked Air Force water polo team has been chosen to finish fifth in the Western Water Polo Association, as selected by the conference's head coaches in the 2009 preseason poll.

Two-time defending conference champion Loyola Marymount, ranked sixth in the national preseason poll, was a unanimous choice for the top spot in the league, garnering 157 points on the ballot.

Tenth-ranked UC San Diego finished second in the voting, with 141 points. Fifteenth-ranked Santa Clara took third place with 135 points, followed by No. 14 UC Davis in fourth place (127 points) and Air Force in fifth place (109 points).

Redlands was selected to finish sixth in the WWPA, followed by Pomona-Pitzer and Whittier in seventh and eighth place, respectively.

Rounding out the conference rankings were Claremont, Cal Lutheran, Chapman, Occidental and La Verne.