Columbus boys continue climb and MAST girls ‘three-peat’ at GMAC water polo championships
There was a moment after this week’s GMAC water polo championships had finished where one of the winning coaches congratulated the other.
MAST Academy girls’ coach Yuniel Usin’s squad had just won its third consecutive title in the event.
But Usin leaned over to Columbus coach Jose Antonio Garcia and said, “Look out, there’s a powerhouse coming.”
MAST has been a consistent contender on the girls’ side for several years.
The Makos showed why again on Tuesday with a dominant 23-8 victory over Mourning in the girls’ final.
But on the boys’ side, Columbus emerged as champion for the first time in what’s believed to be over a decade following a thrilling 11-10 win over MAST’s boys’ squad.
The Explorers (15-5) are in the midst of a revitalization of their program under the direction of Garcia, a former assistant coach at rival powerhouse Belen Jesuit.
Columbus entered the tournament as the top seed for the first time in recent history and is hoping to challenge some of the top state championship contenders such as Belen, Gulliver Prep and Ransom Everglades in the near future.
“Last year, our team had only three months to prepare and learn our system,” Garcia said. “We’re still young and have three starting freshman so it’s still incredible. But our senior leadership has been tremendous.”
Among that veteran group is senior Daniel Morgado, who scored four of his six goals in the first half and has over 110 goals for the season. Garcia also credited seniors Fabrizio Ojeda and Carlos Ramos for their defensive efforts as well as the play of goalie Nicholas Heyna, another senior who had multiple key saves in the second half to hold off the Makos.
MAST, which beat Columbus in comeback fashion in the GMAC final a year earlier, trimmed Columbus’ lead from 11-8 to 11-10 with 12 seconds left before the Explorers played keep away and ran out the clock.
“This is big for our program at our school, which has a great athletic program and has been really supportive to us building this,” said Garcia, who had 15 players in his program last season and has seen that number grow to 29 this season. “We have a lot of young kids that are committed to making this work.”
On the girls’ side, Usin has seen his share of roster turnover during his team’s GMAC dominance.
But their consistency especially on the defensive end has kept MAST among the state’s best.
“It’s been three championships with virtually three different teams,” Usin said. “We have a lot of players that have graduated and have had to depend on a lot of our sophomores. They were patient and showed what they’re capable of doing. They played great defense from start to finish.”
MAST (8-5) cruised to its finals victory, avenging a recent loss to Mourning despite dealing with injury at a key position. Senior Isabella Cardenas, who is typically a field player, stepped in recently to play goalkeeper for injured senior Holly Thorpe and made several saves.
The three-pronged attack of freshman Leonna Castro and juniors Isa Miguel and Matilda Urcuyo, the fourth member of her family to play water polo for MAST, led the way offensively as they have this season.
Urcuyo finished with an impressive nine goals in the final while Miguel had seven and Castro had six.
MAST is a heavy favorite to win its district tournament, which will be held the week of April 7-10, but hopes it is gaining enough momentum to challenge the state’s best starting at regionals April 14-16. The state tournament will be held once again at Belen Jesuit on April 25-26.
