SAN DIEGO – Led by team captain Tony Azevedo, the Stanford men's water polo program will be well-represented on the United States Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this August.
Azevedo is joined by fellow Stanford alums Alex Bowen and Bret Bonanni, and Cardinal freshman Ben Hallock, as the United States Senior National Team announced its 13-man Olympic roster Thursday aboard the flight deck of the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.
The USA Men qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games by defeating Canada in the semifinal round of the 2015 Pan American Games 9-8. The team went on to claim gold at the event, defeating Brazil 11-9 in the title match.
Azevedo, who will serve as Team USA's captain, will be competing in his fifth Olympics. He is the first five-time Olympian in U.S. water polo history. USA water polo took home a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics, and reached the quarterfinals in 2000, 2004 and 2012 Olympic Games with Azevedo on the squad.
Bowen, Bonanni and Hallock will each be competing in their first Olympic Games this August. Bowen graduated from Stanford in 2015, while Bonanni is a 2016 alum. Hallock will be competing as a freshman for the Cardinal during the 2016 season.
Azevedo, who was voted the Pac-12 Men's Water Polo Player of the Century last fall, guided the Cardinal to a pair of NCAA Championships (2001 and 2002) during his time on The Farm. He won the prestigious Peter J. Cutino Award as the most outstanding male player of the year all four years. Azevedo was Stanford's all-time scoring leader with 332 career goals, before Bonanni broke his record goal total last season. He also held the school's single-season scoring record (95 goals), before it was broken by Bonanni with 97 in 2013.
Bonanni established a new Stanford and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) career scoring record with 360 career goals to pass Azevedo's previous mark. A two-time Peter J. Cutino Award finalist, Bonanni was an Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) First Team All-American all four years. He was also an ACWPC Academic All-American Bonanni led Stanford and the MPSF in scoring as a senior last season, totaling 94 goals to rank fourth on the Stanford single-season scoring list and within three scores of his single-season record of 97 goals in 2013. Bonanni recorded 95 career multiple-goal games and 68 career hat tricks.
Bowen was a 2015 Peter J. Cutino Award finalist and a three-time ACWPC First Team All-American during his Cardinal career. A four-time All-MPSF selection, he was the 2011 MPSF Newcomer of the Year. Bowen finished his career fourth all-time at Stanford and ninth in MPSF history in goals (253). He was Stanford's first four-time ACWPC First Team All-American since Azevedo.
Regarded as the nation's top collegiate men's water polo prospect in the 2016 class, Hallock is the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Team. He scored four goals and added two assists to help lead Team USA to a third-place finish in the 2015 FINA Intercontinental Tournament last April. A two-time CIF Division I Player of the Year (2014, 2015) and Los Angeles Daily News Player of the Year (2014, 2015), Hallock scored 97 goals and added 86 assists despite missing three weeks of his senior season in 2015.