Chris Arias

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Florida International University's Chris Arias earned Player of the Year honors as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) has released the 2009 Men's National Collegiate Club Division I & III All-America Teams. Arias leads 63 student-athletes who earned the highest honor in collegiate club water polo.

Arias, who was a unanimous All-America selection earning notice on all the ballots, was one of two FIU players to earn Division I All-America First Team honors joining teammate Alex Lipin.  2009 National Champion the University of California-Los Angeles also garnered two first-team honorees in Max Scott and Matt Wiener, while the University of Texas' John Littlepage, the University of Arizona's Alex Negronida and Lindenwood University goalie Aaron Saule round out the top seven players in the nation.

On the Second Team, the University of Utah's Matt Clark and goalie Sam Thomas are joined by Arizona State University's Wesley Sjoholm, Columbia University's Will Reid, Pennsylvania State University's Andrew Bauman, University of California-Berkeley's Jay Stampfl and Yale University's Tom Lazzarini.

Goalie Alexandre Wright of Columbia tops the Third Team with Arizona State's Corey Peterson, Georgia Institute of Technology's Steven Kuehnle, Michigan State University's Andrew Olesnavich, University of California-Santa Barbara'a Tyler Mattison, University of Illinois-Chicago's Andrew Peterson and University of Washington's Sam Sussman.

In addition, the league membership elected 21 players to the Honorable Mention team as 42 student-athletes from 25 institutions were honored with Division I All-America honors.

On the Division III All-America First Team, athletes from six teams were honored as Monmouth College's Joe Moran and goalie Frank Wasielewski, New York University's David Myre, Tufts University's Benji Koltai, the United States Coast Guard Academy's Mark Tatara, Grinnell College's Alex Phillips, Amherst College's Alex Fraser were recognized by the league membership.

Joining the Division III selections are seven second team selections in Washington University's Mike Musgrave, Macalester College's Jeff Yamashita, St. John's University's Clarence Manuel, Monmouth's Tom Pederson, Middlebury College's Patrick Burton, Wesleyan University's Andrew Jaycox and Tufts' goalie Brian Canter. 

Further, 14 student-athletes tallied Honorable Mention accolades as the Collegiate Water Polo Association recognized 23 Division III student-athletes from 14 schools to raise the total number of All-America honorees (Division I & III) to 65 from 39 programs.

Recipients of CWPA All-America honors are named to the team based upon votes tallied from coaches nationwide.

Nominees for the National Collegiate Club All-America team are nominated by their coaches/club contacts near the end of the season and voted upon by all the collegiate club coaches in the nation. Recipients receive commemorative certificates to mark their accomplishment.