STANFORD, Calif. – Seventeen Stanford men’s water polo student-athletes were named to the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-Academic Team. The 17 honorees is the most of any men’s water polo program in the nation.
Student-athletes eligible for the ACWPC All-Academic award must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher. Athlete merit levels include "excellent" (3.2 to 3.4), "superior" 3.41 to 3.7 and "outstanding" 3.71 to 4.0.
Stanford’s team GPA was 3.42, fourth in the nation and tops among all MPSF squads.
Six members of the Cardinal were named to the “outstanding” list, including Adam Abdulhamid, BJ Churnside, Blake Parrish, Grant Sivesind, Marco Stanchi, and Adam Warmoth. It was the second straight year, both Abdulhamid and Churnside made the “Outstanding” group.
Bret Bonanni, Griffin Bolan, Mitchell Mendoza, Justin Roberto and Spencer Rogers were honored on the “Superior” list.
Harrison Enright, Oliver Lewis, Sam Pfeil, CJ Porter, Kyle Weikert and Grady Williams were each named to the “Excellent” group.
Churnside, an electrical engineering major, completed his Stanford career as a four-time ACWPC All-Academic selection. As a junior, he was honored by the NCAA as the 2014 men’s water polo Elite 89 award winner. The Elite 89, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 89 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 89 championships.
It’s the third straight ACWPC academic honor for Abdulhamid, a redshirt junior majoring in electrical engineering. In the pool, he finished second on the team with a career-high 59 goals.
Bonanni, who completed his career as the Stanford and MPSF all-time scoring leader with 360 career goals, earned academic laurels all four years. The science, technology and society major concluded his senior season with a conference-leading 94 goals. Bonanni, a four-time All-American, is the only Cardinal in history to post multiple 90-goal seasons.
Warmoth, a redshirt junior engineering physics major, was an ACWPC All-Academic honoree for the third straight season.
Bolan, Lewis, Pfeil, Roberto and Weikert were all honored for the second time, while Enright, Mendoza, Parrish, Porter, Sivesind, Stanchi, Rogers and Williams were first-time honorees.