Three SCC Teams On Men's Water Polo State Top 10
The South Coast Conference continues to be one of the strongest in the state in men's water polo especially after three members were selected on this week's State Kap7 Top 10 rankings.
Undefeated Long Beach City College (13-0) is the No. 1 team in California while Cerritos (11-4) occupies the No. 5 slot. Mt. San Antonio (9-2) comes in at No. 7.
The SCC is poised to send a team to the 2019 CCCAA Championships after being left out of the final four last year. The conference would also like to end the 3-year streak of state titles won by Golden West, currently ranked No. 2 behind the Vikings.
Vedran Latkovic, from the Balkan country of Montenegro and a sophomore transfer from Golden West (2017), leads Long Beach in scoring with 42 goals. Five South Coast teams are among the state's top 11 in offense with Chaffey averaging 17.9 goals to top all Calfiornia schools, then #2 Mt. SAC at 17.8, #4 LBCC at 15.9, #10 Cerritos at 12.5, and #11 El Camino scoring at an 11.9 clip.
Individually, Chaffey's Adrian Trejo and Cerritos' Kevin Elizarraraz top the conference in goals with 46 each. Rio Hondo's Jacob Ayala is the current SCC leader in assists (34) while El Camino's Nate Griffith is the top defensive player in steals with 41 (second in the state). Mt. SAC goalie Andres Mercado is the state's save percentage leader (.626) and Cerritos goalie Zachary Jenkins is the state saves leader so far with 159. Long Beach goalie Cole Raulston has three times reached double digits in saves (84 overall), twice in close wins over nemesis Golden West.