Crab People Dominate, Bid Club Era Farewell
In the wake of a National Championship title, the Crab People have come out on top once again.
The men’s water polo team earned a first place finish, after hosting the eighth team spring tournament last weekend.
“The team looked real strong,” said player-coach Tony Marino. “And was definitely the best team at the tournament.”
The Crab People ended the tournament with a 4-0 record, beating Illinois Tech 19-5 and University of Illinois-Chicago 11-8 in the opening rounds.
For the final round-robin match, they defeated the Monmouth College alumni team, known as Junkyard, 19-6, which propelled the Crab People into the championship game taking the victory 13-10, against Lake Forest.
“I believe the tournament went very well,” said Josh Dunn, who played on the Junkyard team and will head up the new varsity water polo program next year. “We had a lot of great teams that came out to play and the level of competition was very strong as well.”
The Crab People pushed through the strong competition, finishing with some noteworthy stats. Freshman All-American Raheem Brown scored 20 goals, while earning his 100th goal of the academic year.
Another All-American, junior Tony Marino, finished the tournament with 19 goals, while All-American freshman Alex Hernandez and sophomore Marshall Palfenier were a force in goal.
“This was a great way to end the crab people era,” said Marino. “The team has grown so much since its start to right now and is playing at such a high level.”
Now that the end of spring is fast approaching, the Crab People look forward to the fall season, when they will make the switch to varsity.
“Coming off of winning a National Championship, a lot of teams are going to be expecting great things from us,” Dunn said. “And I am excited for our boys to come out and make a statement next year at the varsity level.”
With the spring tournament marking the end of the club season, there will also be some sad goodbyes.
“The tournament was also a final send off for seniors James Corbeil and Brian Woulfe,” Marino said. “They provided the team with character, great depth and experience over the past four years and will be missed.”