Versatile – Pair Named Swimming World Water Polo Players of the Year

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 25. NEXT up in the annual award showcase schedule at Swimming World are the Water Polo Players of the Year. This year, the United States' Lauren Wenger and Spain's Guillermo Molina earned the female and male equivalents of the award.

Eric Velazquez, the senior editor of Muscle & Fitness Magazine who previously served as the executive editor and senior writer of USA Water Polo the Magazine, checked in with a feature on each athlete.

Here are some excerpts from his articles:

LAUREN WENGER, United States
Female Water Polo Player of the Year

Wenger is the very definition of homegrown talent.

Paying her dues at the youth and junior levels for the U.S. women's national team program for years might have, at times, seemed an exercise in futility to the 6-3 (1.9 meters), 170-pound (77 kg) utility player.

But under Coach Guy Baker, the U.S. program has become one of the game's most productive pipelines for talent—it was just a matter of time before Wenger was sharing the limelight with mainstays such as Brenda Villa and Ericka Lorenz.

Fast forward to 2007.

Already a budding international talent, Wenger has now solidified her place among the game's best. Wenger proved herself a capable scorer at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, but 2007 was a different show altogether.

GUILLERMO MOLINA, Spain
Male Water Polo Player of the Year

Coming into this year's World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Spain was hoping for a return to glory.

Once regarded as one of the most balanced and feared programs in international water polo, Spain hadn't enjoyed the medal stand at Worlds since capturing gold in 2001.

Getting back there, as it did by capturing bronze this year, could be attributed to two things—continuing to build around their captain, Ivan Perez, and complementing him with a player whose name won't soon be forgotten: defender Guillermo Molina.

Female Water Polo Player of the Year

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