Stockton's "Water Polo U" is back in the national spotlight as the NCAA honors two University of Pacific student-athletes.
After earning the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 award this year, Pacific men's and women's water polo players Andrea De Nardi and Viktoria Tamas are competing in a national contest that runs through Thursday, and the Tigers need your vote to get extra recognition from the NCAA.
De Nardi and Tamas are nominees in the NCAA's fourth annual Elite 90 contest after receiving their individual NCAA Elite 90 awards for their respective seasons.
The NCAA Elite 90 award recognizes student-athletes who have reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level while achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers.
The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships. Only 90 of the more than 900,000 NCAA student-athletes are recognized for their combination of academic and athletic excellence each year.
De Nardi and Tamas earned their Elite 90 awards after holding GPAs of 4.0 and above while participating at the 2017-2018 NCAA Championships for Pacific. This is the first time in Pacific history that two players from men's and women's programs have won the prestigious award in the same year.
De Nardi, a sophomore from France studying engineering management, helped the Pacific men's water polo team to a Golden Coast Conference title in the fall of 2017. Tamas, a sophomore attacker from Hungary, is majoring in business administration. She made her mark in the water this season, helping the Tigers to their second GCC.
Video courtesy of the University of Pacific.
De Nardi and Tamas need your vote as they are competing against the other 88 Elite 90 winners from across the country for a chance to be recognized on the NCAA's official social media accounts on Friday, July 27. Voting is now open and fans are allowed to vote once per day until Thursday, July 26 at 8 p.m. E.T. At that time, the student-athlete with the highest number of votes wins.