The Vikings Men’s Water Polo team has completed its 2025 season, boasting an SCC tournament championship and a 3rd place finish in the 3C2A State Championships.
During the season, LBCC had a perfect 7-0 record in conference games this season and had an overall record of 26-8.
“This is just a really hard working group. They got around a lot of tough games and they always came out ready to battle,” head coach Djoko Radunovic said.
Much of the team thinks the success they had this year is because of the relationships they formed and how much effort every individual put in equally in training sessions and games.
“I think they formed a real brotherhood in a really short period of time. That just helped us play much better as a team,” Radunovic said.
After an underwhelming 3-3 start to the season, LBCC got into a good rhythm and went 23-5 for the rest of the year.
“Our men’s team has been really strong throughout history. Back-to-back conference champions. I think this year they really performed at a very high level. I know that early on against Golden West and West Valley, we had some losses, but they were really close contests. Going into the playoffs, we really felt good. Unfortunately, we played the defending state champions in the semifinals. And you know, you get that loss, but all in all we are really proud of their performance and their growth,” Dean of Athletics Randy Totorp said.
LBCC attacker Federico Gulisano led the Vikings in both goals and assists, boasting an impressive 97 goals and 28 assists during the season.
LBCC’s Water Polo team has many different players from all over the world, which can make forming good relationships with teammates difficult.
“We have many international players from different water polo backgrounds, so building chemistry took time. We trained hard together, listened to our coaches, and you could really see everyone’s teamwork improve week by week,” Viking attacker Thomaz Figueiredo said.
Having now played an entire season with each other, conditioning and playing games week after week, this group is as close as it has ever been.
“We’re a very united team. It really became a family environment and it feels great to be a part of a group like this,” Figueiredo said.
The Vikings will look to improve on their third place finishes in the state championship and the SoCal Regionals tournament next year with talented returning players and some exciting new additions.
“With the new players coming in, the team will be even stronger. We have everything we need to take a big step forward and have a great season,” Figueiredo said.
