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Santa Ana’s water polo team and Coach Maer Cruz after the squad captured the title at the Corona Tournament, Blue Ribbon Division. (Photo courtesy Santa Ana Athletics).
Santa Ana High School’s boys water polo has had a torrid start to the season, winning 17 of its first 18 games.
“The boys work hard and actually look forward to practice,” said Cruz. “They are driven to get better every day. They’ve come a long way from their freshmen year, when they were learning not only how to play water polo, but how to swim.”
The Saints opened league play Tuesday defeating Ocean View 19-6. Santa Ana is in the Golden West League, the middle tier league of the Golden Empire Conference. Other teams in the league are Ocean View, Segerstrom, Tustin and Westminster.
“This is a special team and Coach Maer Cruz has done an amazing job getting this team to where they are performing at a highly competitive level with some notable wins against strong opponents like Long Beach Cabrillo (11-6), Palm Springs (16-14), and Marina (17-9),” said Athletic Director Brian Lillie. “Their one loss was against a tough Villa Park team (19-12) in the Western Tournament.
“At 17-1, this is the best start since the 1995 team that started the season at 10-0 (although that team did not make playoffs once they started league play against the very tough Sunset League teams).”
Top players on the team are seniors Cecilio Jadiel, Isaiah Simmons, Alex Ramirez and Matthew Macedo and junior Shaun Gonzalez.
The squad also took first in the Corona Tournament, winning the Blue Ribbon Division, one of three divisions.
Santa Ana advanced to the CIF playoffs last year, losing to Jurupa Valley 15-8 in the opening round.
The Saints next match is next Tuesday at Westminster.
Send water polo news to timburt@ocsportszone.com
