The CMS-ence of Ethan Lewis
CLAREMONT, Calif. - After an off-year for the CMS men's water polo program as a sophomore, when he had to play goalie for much of the season, senior Ethan Lewis has helped rebuild the Stags back into SCIAC Championship contenders over the last two years. As a Claremont McKenna student majoring in computer science at Harvey Mudd, he has also used his academic pursuits to help rebuild websites.
Lewis and the Stags enter this weekend's SCIAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed, and begin play on Friday night at 7 p.m. at home at Axelrood Pool against No. seed Pomona-Pitzer. The two teams split during the regular season, with CMS winning 9-8 at Pomona-Pitzer and the Sagehens edging the Stags in overtime 10-9 at Axelrood. The Stags have also played two tight contests with No. 1 Whittier, handing the Poets their only conference loss, and they are thick in the hunt for the title this season.
"Winning a SCIAC title this year obviously would mean a lot," said Lewis. "Not only is it senior year, but my past three years, we've either been in the final or semifinal, and putting in all that work and coming up short, it really makes this year important to finally overcome that hump of claiming a title."
A SCIAC All-Academic team and an ACWPC All-Academic Superior selection, Lewis hasn't come up short in any of his academic pursuits. He has taken advantage of the academic set-up at the Claremont Consortium to attend Claremont McKenna and take advanced mathematics and computer science courses at Harvey Mudd. He spent the summer of 2018 starting a six-month project to rebuild the website of Bonded Materials, a local construction company in his native Honolulu, and spent this past summer as a software engineer for the iTrade Network in the San Francisco Bay area, specializing in machine learning and image classification.
Lewis feels that being a part of the consortium has been a big advantage to his academic pursuits.
"There's a lot of pros that both of these schools offer," he said. "For me to get the best of both worlds, being able to have the CMC core teach me some things I might not have gotten if I went to Mudd, and taking the more advanced mathematics and CS courses at Mudd, has enabled me to I think be built as a more well-rounded student."
Of course, the water polo experience has also been a big part of Lewis' four years in college, and he says that playing in the CMS program has made him feel like he is part of a larger network stretching beyond Axelrood Pool.
"Something I really have a great time with is the alumni game," he said. "These connections that you make with people these four years, and the connections that you make with alumni, you instantly kind of share something with them. It's that network and that camaraderie that comes along with your teammates and the generations being passed down that makes playing here so special."
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