CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – No. 18 Harvard men's water polo opens the 2025 season this weekend at the Bruno Classic, hosted at Blodgett Pool on Saturday and Sunday. The two-day tournament will welcome Bucknell, Fordham, Gannon, and Wagner to Cambridge as the Crimson looks to start the fall campaign on a strong note.

Harvard will play four games over the weekend, beginning Saturday morning with a 10:00 a.m. matchup against Bucknell. The Crimson will then face Fordham at 5:00 p.m. to close the opening day. On Sunday, Harvard will take on Gannon at 9:00 a.m. before wrapping up the tournament against Wagner at 3:30 p.m. All games will stream live on ESPN+.

WHAT TO KNOW

• The Crimson has started fast in recent years at the Bruno Classic, posting a combined 8-3 record over the past three seasons.
• Harvard topped both Wagner and No. 17 CBU at home last season before narrowly falling to No. 6 Pacific, 15-14, to close out the weekend.
• Senior Mason Hunt will captain the Crimson in 2025.
• Harvard returns NWPC Rookie of the Year Dean Strauser and All-America honorable mention Jack Burghardt following a 22-win campaign in 2024.
• Strauser recorded 57 goals and 38 assists in an outstanding rookie season.
• Fellow first-years Lukas Peabody and Tyler Hogan also topped 40 points apiece last season, helping fuel the Crimson attack.
• Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan posted a career-high 59 points (29 goals, 30 assists) as a sophomore in a balanced 2024 campaign.
• The rising junior trio of Burghardt, Jake Tsotadze, and Sogaard-Srikrishnan combined for 112 goals and 109 assists last year and will be key leaders this season.
• Harvard went 9-1 in NWPC play in 2024, falling to Brown in the conference semifinals before defeating Iona in the third-place game.
• The Crimson has won 20+ games in each of the last 10 seasons. Head coach Ted Minnis enters 2025 with 296 career wins in the men's program, just four shy of 300.
• Three newcomers join the roster: Felix Pal, Emil Sogaard-Srikrishnan, and Connor Kim.
• Kim is a multi-time Junior Olympics All-American, led scoring at the 2024 Hungarian Tournament, earned All-CIF First Team honors, and helped Harvard-Westlake win three Junior Olympics titles.
• Emil Sogaard-Srikrishnan joins his brother Vilas after winning four straight NEPSAC water polo championships with Brunswick School.
• Pal comes from Australia, where he led Scots College in scoring the past two seasons and represented Australia at the 2024 FINA World Championships as a member of the 18U National Team.

NEXT UP
Harvard travels to Princeton for the Princeton Invitational on Sept. 6–7, where it will face CBU, Navy, and Bucknell.