Charger water polo teams finish tied for third in the state

SAN ANTONIO — The boys and girls water polo teams from Boerne Champion were defeated in the semifinals at last week’s UIL state tournament held in San Antonio at Davis Natatorium.

The Champion boys fell to League City Clear Creek, 17-12, while the Lady Chargers were defeated by Clute Brazoswood, 15-8.

League City Clear Creek went on to win the state title over Lewisville Hebron, 17-15, while Clute Brazoswood finished second in the state after they lost to Lewisville Marcus in the finals, 14-13.

Champion ends the season on the girls side at 28-5-1, while the Charger boys finish at 25-9.

This was the fourth trip to state for the boys team, while the Lady Chargers were making their second straight appearance at the state tourney. While both Champion squads were gunning for gold, Chargers coach Scott Slay said they should be proud of earning bronze.

“We were not pushovers in the state semifinal round. The two teams we played had a tough go against Champion,” he said. “They had to play their best to beat us and while losing is hard, we take pride in our third-place finishes. We gave it our best and that is all you can do.”

Varsity Boys

The Champion boys hung with Clear Creek for a time until the League City team started to pull away in the second half.

Last Friday’s match was tied 2-2 at the end of the first quarter and then the Chargers outscored Clear Creek in the second quarter, 5-4, and took a 7-6 lead into halftime.

It was 7-5 right before the break, but Clear Creek netted a goal with six seconds until halftime and then tallied the first three goals of the third quarter for a 4-0 run for their first lead of the game and pulled ahead 9-7.

Champion’s Will Harrison tallied a goal, and it was 9-8 with 5:29 left in the third, but that’s as close as the Chargers would come to retaking the lead. Clear Creek went up by six goals at 16-10 before winning it by five goals.

Harrison finished with 6 goals, Julius Hoxhaj added 3 goals, EJ Altermatt finished with 2 goals and Baylor Slay knocked in a goal. Hoxhaj and Aaron Mendoza both tallied 3 assists, while Mendoza came up with 3 steals.

Jackson Hankins was in goal for the Chargers and recorded 8 saves and 2 steals.

Varsity Girls

Champion and Clute Brazoswood were tied 2-2 at the end of the first quarter, but the Brazoswood school outscored the Lady Chargers in the second quarter, 6-1, and held an 8-3 lead at the halftime break and didn’t look back from there.

Clute won the third quarter 4-2 and opened a 12-5 edge by the end of the period. In the final stanza, Brazoswood focused on defense and slowing down the game as they drained the shot clock, and both teams ended up scoring 3 goals apiece for the 15-8 final.

Bennett Rice led the Chargers with 4 goals, Breanna Hempton finished with 2 goals, while Rebecca Conrad and Cayden Van Dyne added single goals.

Adrianna Swanson tallied 2 assists, while Van Dyne came up with 6 steals and had 12 saves in the match.

All Tournament Teams

Senior Will Harrison was named to the state all-tournament boys team, while junior Bennett Rice was named to the state all-tournament girls team.

Harrison is one of four seniors on the boys team that will graduate, while six Lady Chargers will graduate this year.

Slay said this year’s seniors are special.

“This group of seniors is very near and dear to my heart. They helped lay the groundwork for the expectations of this program. They are all great kids and will be missed,” he said. “They learned a lot about water polo in their time at Champion and have taught the up-and-coming kids.”