2024 All-Northeast Water Polo Conference Team Released; Princeton University’s Pozaric & Litvak Take Most Valuable Player & Coach of the Year, Harvard University’s Strauser Nets Rookie of the Year
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Princeton University’s Roko Pozaric (Sr., Zagreb, Croatia/Gimnazija Titusa Brezovackog) and Dustin Litvak are honored with Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year status, while Harvard University’s Dean Strauser (Fr., Calabasas, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) posts Rookie of the Year recognition as the 2024 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) All-Conference Team is released by the league office based in voting/selections by the organization’s seven head coaches.
A total of 22 athletes are recognized with seven First Team, eight Second Team and seven Honorable Mention selections accompanying the three major awards.
Field athlete selections are based on a slotting system approved by the league Governance Council. Goalkeepers and the three individual awards (Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year) are determined by a vote of the seven head coaches based on nominations from each institution.
A record three-time NWPC Most Valuable Player, Pozaric becomes the inaugural men’s and/or women’s varsity athlete in NWPC/Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)/Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) history to claim MVP status in back-to-back-to-back seasons. The 2021 NWPC Rookie of the Year, he joins fellow Tigers Kevin Foster (1999, CWPA Southern Division), Jon Pharris (2001, CWPA Southern Division), 2024 CWPA Hall of Fame inductee Peter Sabbatini (2003, CWPA Southern Division), John Stover (2004, CWPA Southern Division), Brendan Colgan (2008, CWPA Southern Division), Mike Merlone (2010, CWPA Southern Division) and Vojislav Mitrovic (2017, NWPC) in acquiring MVP status for Princeton since 1997.
Litvak garners his fourth consecutive Coach of the Year nod as the 2003 co-Coach of the Year (with Harvard University’s Ted Minnis) previously collected the league’s highest coaching honor in 2022 and 2021. The award marks the seventh COY laurel bestowed on Princeton as Luis Nicolao received CWPA Southern Division Coach of the Year status in 2001, 2003 and 2008.
Strauser becomes the fifth Harvard men’s water polo athlete to rack up Rookie of the Year recognition since 1997 by joining James Rozolis-Hill (Jr., Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach) (2002, NWPC), Dennis Blyashov (2017, NWPC), Anthony Ridgley (2015, CWPA Northern Division) and Colin Chiapello (2014, CWPA Northern Division).
The trio of prior 2021, 2022 and 2023 NWPC First Team recipient Pozaric, 2023 NWPC First Team honoree Vladan Mitrovic (Sr., Novi Sad, Serbia/Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj) and 2023 NWPC Second Team goalkeeper Kristof Kovacs (So.., Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary/Bethlen Gabor Reformed) lead the seven First Team selections. They are joined by Harvard 2022 Rookie of the Year and prior two-time (2022, 2023) First Team pick Rozolis-Hill, Strauser, Iona University’s Rastko Jevdjovic (Jr., Belgrade, Serbia/Third Belgrade Grammar School) and 2022 Second Team/2023 First Team awardee Ilias Stothart (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) of Brown University.
2022 and 2023 Second Team selection Owen Hale (Sr., El Segundo, Calif./Loyola) of Harvard, 2022 Second Team recipient Luksa Vlasic (Sr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) of Iona and 2023 Second Team honoree Adam Ivatorov (Jr., Rockaway, N.Y./Staten Island Technical) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) top the 2024 NWPC Second Team.
Princeton’s Gavin Appeldorn (Fr., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) and Finn LeSieur (So., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor), Harvard’s Jack Burghardt (So., Manhattan Beach, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) along with Brown University’s Mate Tymcyna (So., Eger, Heves, Hungary/Neumann Janos Gimnazium) and goalkeeper Dimitris Kratimenos (Fr., Athens, Greece/Costeas Geitonas School) round out the eight Second Team selections.
The seven member Honorable Mention list is comprised exclusively of athletes collecting their inaugural All-Conference kudos.
Goalkeeper Tanner Furtak (Jr., San Diego, Calif./Patrick Henry) and Jake Tsotadze (So., Menlo Park, Calif./Sacred Heart Preparatory) of Harvard lead the team with Brown’s Mac Berry (So., San Anselmo, Calif./Archie Williams), Connecticut College’s Jesse Ellis (So., Fresno, Calif./Sanger), Long Island University’s Josep Jodra Munoz (Sr., Barcelona, Spain/Closa), MIT’s Rick Lundh (So., Rancho Santa Fe, Calif./Cathedral Catholic) and Princeton’s Gavin Molloy (Sr., Old Greenwich, Conn./Brunswick School) completing the 2024 NWPC All-Conference list.
