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Collegiate Water Polo Association

The Collegiate Water Polo Association is a conference of colleges and universities in the Eastern United States that sponsor 19 men's teams and 17 women's teams that compete in varsity water polo.[1] The winners of the conference tournaments earn one of the four spots in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship and one of the eight spots in the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship. The CWPA sponsors club team competition in 17 men's divisions and 13 women's divisions across the United States.

History[edit]

The conference was founded in the early 1970s as the Mid Atlantic Conference by Dick Russell, the swimming and water polo coach at Bucknell University with member schools from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. The first conference championship was held in 1972, with Yale defeating Harvard.


The organization was run by the conference's coaches until a commissioner was hired in 1990. In 1993, the Mid Atlantic Conference admitted the full memberships of the New England and Southern Conferences, changing its name to the Mid Atlantic Conference with 39 varsity and club member schools. The following year, the conference went co-ed, raising the number of member teams to 55. As the organization expanded into the Midwest in 1995, the referees from the Eastern Water Polo Referees Association opted to go on strike, so the conference established its own refereeing bureau. With 95 teams from the Northeast, Midwest, and South, the conference took its present name in 1996.


The CWPA continued expanding, entering the Northwest in 1998, the Great Plains and California in 1999, and now has membership in 43 of the contiguous 48 States.[2][3]

Commissioner- Dan Sharadin

Assistant Commissioner- Tom Tracey

Director of Communications- Ed Haas

Membership Services- Ian Thompson

Director of Multimedia- Justin Cypert

Director of Officials- Ed Reed

1999

Wesleyan University

2000 RIT

2001 Trinity University

2002 RIT

2003

Middlebury College

2004 Wesleyan University

2005 Wesleyan University

2006

Lindenwood University

2007 Lindenwood University

2008 Lindenwood University

2009

Tufts University

2010

UC-Santa Cruz

2011

Washington University in St. Louis

2012

Monmouth College

2013

UC-Santa Cruz

2014 UC-Santa Cruz/Washington University in St. Louis (Co-Champions)

2015 Washington University in St. Louis

2016 Washington University in St. Louis

2017 Washington University in St. Louis

2018 Washington University in St. Louis

2019 Washington University in St. Louis

2020 Cancelled due to

COVID-19 pandemic

2021 Cancelled

USA Water Polo Hall of Fame

Official Website of the CWPA