UCI men’s water polo picked eighth in MPSF

The UC Irvine men’s water polo team has been picked to finish eighth in the nine-team Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, according to a coaches’ poll announced recently.

Coach Marc Hunt’s Anteaters said goodbye to first-team All-Americans Tim Hutten and Colin Mello, as well as Cole Bitter, who earned honorable mention in All-American voting, after finishing 14-11, 4-4 for fifth place in the MPSF, last season.

The aforementioned trio combined to score 153 goals, including 75 by Hutten, who earned MPSF and national player of the year honors.

Sophomore Brandon Johnson tops the list of UCI returners for 2008, after scoring 31 goals as a redshirt freshman in 2007.

Cole Bielskis who produced 17 goals as a junior last fall, will redshirt, Hunt said, after having microfracture surgery.

Junior returner Jamie Frank had 13 goals last season for UCI.

Hunt said newcomers Mihailo Jevtovic, an international recruit from Serbia, and Golden West College transfers Tom and Kyle Kruip should fortify the squad immediately.

UCI finished with 18 points in the voting, topping only Pacific (eight).

USC, which received seven of nine first-place votes, sits atop the poll, followed by Stanford (53), Cal (49), UCLA (46), Pepperdine (36), UC Santa Barbara (32) and Long Beach State (19).

Stanford is coached by former Corona del Mar High coach John Vargas.

Clint and Clay Jorth are listed as top newcomers for UCLA.

UCI is scheduled to open its season at home against UCLA on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.

— Barry Faulkner