Johnson Leads Males’s Water Polo All-Big West Class as Freshman of the Year

IRVINE, Calif. — The Big West introduced its 2025 males’s water polo award winners and all-conference groups on Friday, crowning UC Santa Barbara’s Charlie Johnson as The Big West Freshman of the Year and bestowing all-conference honors on a complete of six Gauchos. Santa Barbara’s standout trio of Danilo Dragovic, Levi Lentin and Brock Zamanian all earned locations on the All-Big West First Team, whereas Johnson added an all-freshman nod and honorable point out to his Freshman of the Year award. Luke Redotey earned honorable point out alongside Johnson, whereas Camren Simoncelli joined Johnson on the all-freshman crew.
 
Johnson burst onto the scene with 44 targets as a real freshman in 2025, good for third on the crew and 10^th in The Big West, including 26 assists to rank 10^th within the convention for whole factors as nicely, with 70 to his identify. His 44 targets and 70 factors each lead all Big West rookies. After he was held scoreless on the season’s opening day, Johnson tallied his first collegiate purpose in opposition to La Verne and went on to attain in 17 consecutive video games. He recorded a pivotal hat-trick to assist the Gauchos upset then-No. 6 UC Davis on Nov. 1, the win which finally secured Santa Barbara’s first-round bye in The Big West Championship. Johnson’s achievement implies that Gaucho student-athletes have gained no less than one Big West Freshman of the Year award in all 4 of UC Santa Barbara’s fall sports activities. In soccer, Steinar Bjornsson claimed the honour with the lads’s squad, whereas in cross nation it was Addie Oversmith taking house the award with the ladies’s squad. Gabi Martinez earned the acclaim in girls’s volleyball, with Johnson now finishing the sweep. Johnson is the primary UC Santa Barbara Water Polo participant to earn a convention Freshman of the Year or Newcomer of the Year award since Milos Golic was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Newcomer of the Year in 2007, the one different Gaucho to win such an award.
 
At the tip of the Gauchos’ attacking spear this season was the dynamic duo of Dragovic and Zamanian. Like the Splash Bros. of their prime with the mid-2010s Golden State Warriors, Dragovic and Zamanian punished opponents with their outdoors capturing, combining for 122 of Santa Barbara’s 421 targets on the season between the 2 of them — 63 for Dragovic and 59 for Zamanian — profession highs for each and good for third and fourth in The Big West rankings. Also like elite basketball guards, the 2 dealt with loads of playmaking duties, tallying 20-plus assists every — 21 for Zamanian and 20 for Dragovic — to complete atop the convention factors tally, Dragovic’s 83 simply edging out Zamanian’s 81. After being left off the All-Big West groups regardless of a 35-goal, 35-assist freshman marketing campaign that noticed him earn All-America honors regardless in 2024, Dragovic’s 2025 marketing campaign was a stamping of his authority on the convention and an indication of issues to return; the Montenegrin has two years of eligibility remaining. Meanwhile, for the redshirt senior Zamanian, 2025 was a swan tune, a one-upping of his already wonderful 2024 marketing campaign to wrap up his profession in Blue and Gold. He finishes tied for eighth in this system’s all-time purpose leaderboard, with 162, due to back-to-back 50-goal seasons.
 
In purpose, the talismanic Lentin received a swan tune of his personal, lastly incomes First Team All-Big West honors after back-to-back second crew alternatives in 2023 and 2024. While the 2025 marketing campaign was primarily concerning the Gauchos’ high-powered offense, Lentin anchored the protection as a veteran chief and the crew’s captain. And he was fairly the goalkeeper too. The La Jolla native as soon as once more tormented his hometown crew, placing up a 10-save, three-steal efficiency in opposition to then-No. 6 UC San Diego that helped Santa Barbara upset the Tritons for a win to start convention play and earned himself Big West Player of the Week honors. In the Gauchos’ signature win of the season, the 16-13 upset of then-No. 6 UC Davis in Davis, Lentin had a career-high 17 saves. He finishes his large profession as one in all eight goalies to ever report 500 saves in Santa Barbara’s Blue and Gold and ranks sixth on this system’s all-time saves chart.
 
Speaking of veteran leaders anchoring the protection, Redoutey earned his first all-conference honor since making the Golden Coast Conference All-Freshman Team in what’s now his senior season. A defender by commerce, Redoutey loved his finest offensive marketing campaign in 2025, tallying a career-high 26 targets and including 13 assists so as to add one other wrinkle to Santa Barbara’s multi-faceted assault. He additionally was a number one man within the Nov. 1 upset of the Aggies, scoring all three of his targets within the fourth quarter of that recreation to show a three-goal halftime deficit right into a three-goal win on the remaining buzzer.
 
While the skin shooters had been headlining the offense, Simoncelli was quietly having a robust rookie season down low. The redshirt freshman middle tallied 31 targets in his first season of collegiate water polo, simply edging out fellow put up participant Kai Ross to complete as Santa Barbara’s top-scoring middle. Adept at giving defenders suits even with out the ball, Simoncelli additionally drew 44 exclusions on the season. On 4 events, he drew three in a single recreation, sufficient to foul an opponent out of motion. Against each Loyola Marymount and UC Irvine in non-conference motion, he drew 4 kick-outs. While he additionally put up a four-goal recreation in opposition to Fresno Pacific, Simoncelli unfold out his 31 targets throughout 23 of the crew’s 31 video games, together with their Big West Semifinal.
 
After being picked fifth within the preseason coaches’ ballot, the Gauchos completed second in The Big West, incomes a first-round bye within the convention event, solely falling to the eventual convention champions. Santa Barbara completed the season with a 17-14 report, and the 421 targets they scored rank because the second most in a single season by any Gaucho Water Polo crew ever.