UC San Diego athletes in water polo and baseball picked up honors this week for both athletics and academics.
Twelve members of the men’s water polo team earned Western Water Polo Association All-Academic accolades, the conference announced Thursday, while the California Collegiate Athletic Association named senior left-handed pitcher Preston Mott 2019 Athlete of the Year.
The Tritons’ all-academic honorees are sophomore Brett Candioty, junior Noah Carniglia, sophomore Sam Gallo, sophomore Michael Gelnak, redshirt sophomore Calder Hilde-Jones, senior Carson Ivancovich, redshirt sophomore Jack Ranj, sophomore Brad Robison, sophomore Boris Rubel, senior Collin Sullivan, redshirt junior Jack Turner and senior Alessandro Valania.
To be eligible for All-Academic honors, a player must have competed in at least 50 percent of his team’s games during the season and carry a cumulative grade-point-average of 3.0 or better.
Seven scholar-athletes received Association of Collegiate Water Polo Association Coaches All-Academic designations for 2018 – Carniglia, Gallo, Gelnak, Hilde-Jones, Ivancovich, Robison and Turner.
UC San Diego (20-6) had its second-best winning percentage in program history in 2018 (.769) and finished No. 5 in the nation in the final CWPA Top 20 poll. The team won the WWPA Championship for the 19th time in school history.
Mott is the ninth UC San Diego male student-athlete to earn the CCAA Athlete of the Year award, with Adam Klie, of the men’s basketball team, the most recent recipient in 2017. He is the second member of the baseball program to be recognized – pitcher Elias Tuma was honored in 2012.
Mott graduated last week from UC San Diego’s Revelle College with a degree in pharmacological chemistry and a minor in business. He boasted a 3.90 grade-point average through the winter quarter.
Earlier this month, Mott became a first-time Google Cloud Academic All-American, making the second team. He is a three-time CCAA All-Academic and two-time CCAA Spring All-Academic honoree.
Mott went 9-1 with a 2.51 ERA over 15 appearances in 2019, 12 of them starts. He led the Tritons in ERA and strikeouts (68), and was second in wins, starts and innings pitched (79.0).
– Staff reports
