Poway Water Polo has strong Junior Olympics showing

The best showing by Poway Valley Water Polo at the annual Junior Olympics in the past was a 14th-place finish in 2016.

That is, until now. The bar has been officially raised a bit higher.

Though this year’s players were disappointed by their finish, which was far lower than their expectations, the team put on an impressive display at this year’s Junior Olympics, which ran July 26-29 at Stanford University.

Playing against some of the best teams in the nation, Poway wound up fourth among 44 teams in the 10-and-under division in the national tournament, just missing out on their goal.

“They wanted to be on the medal stand and they missed that by one spot,’’ Poway coach Roger McAulay said. “I expected to contend for a medal before the tournament started. I thought we’d be in the top 10 at least.

“We lost to the national champion and the No. 3 team twice. Not a bad performance,” McAulay said. “I had over a dozen people at the tournament who I’d never met tell me our performance was incredible.’’

McAulay is consoled by the fact that five players from the 13-player team at Stanford will return when the new season begins in September.

Three of them are returning starters.

This year’s Poway team consisted of Aileen Shin, Asher Brunner, Braylen Axline, Caleb Griesi, Eamon Bruhn, Jack Davis, Jaden Tijam, JP Day, Kiana Harrington, Kyle Fox, Merrick Au, Oren Penning and Ryan Kopotic.

Poway posted an impressive 5-1 record during pool play, defeating Rocky Mountain Neptunes 9-1, United 7-0, Trojan 4.3-4.1, 680 A 5-0 and Rose Bowl 11-5 before dropping a 4-2 decision to Newport Beach.

In the semifinals, Poway was beaten by eventual champion Vanguard of Huntington Beach 10-3.

“Vanguard has won multiple championships in multiple divisions,’’ McAulay said. “Vanguard’s people plan on winning tournaments like that and are disappointed if they don’t win.’’

Poway, which practiced most of the season at the Poway High pool, missed the medal stand by losing the third-place game with a second tournament loss to Newport Beach 4-1 to conclude the tournament.

“I know the kids were disappointed for a while, but they bounced back,’’ McAulay said. “They wanted that podium really bad, that’s for sure.

“They saw everything right in front of them at the JOs. They know where they want to go next year, what it looks like and how to get there. They know now that hard work and perseverance will prevail as they move forward.’’

Two players off the Poway squad will be named to the All-American Team. One will be on the first team and the other will be on second team. At this point, McAulay does not know which two players will be chosen.

“The difference between baseball in Poway and water polo in Southern California is you have a better chance to compete at the highest level in water polo,’’ McAulay said. “If none of these players move, most of them will be at Poway or Rancho Bernardo in a few years.

“There is a lot of upside to this group. They play great as a team and have individual talent, which you have to possess to play on a national level like this.’’

Especially if the program has never won anything like the Junior Olympics.