Video Tribute: The CMS Women's Water Polo Class of 2021

As part of NCAA Division III week (Apr. 5-11), we will be honoring the senior classes for all 21 of our varsity sports. A number of our student-athletes elected to take a semester or a school year off and could return to action next season, but we have chosen to honor the senior classes as they would have been, without the COVID-19 interruption. The members of the Class of 2021 lost so much of what they had built towards in their first 2-3 years of competition when the pandemic hit, but still clearly left their mark on CMS Athletics.

CLAREMONT, Calif. - If all went according to plan, the CMS Women's Water Polo program would be having one of its best seasons this spring, led by the Class of 2021. The Athenas had only two seniors in the Class of 2020, and would have fielded a veteran squad this season capable of challenge for a SCIAC title.

There were early signs of the CMS progress in 2020 before the shutdown of spring sports. The Athenas defeated Villanova 14-6, took Whittier to overtime on the road, rolled past Occidental 12-4, and had a tight 6-4 loss to Pomona-Pitzer 6-4. In a hypotethetical 2021 season, CMS would have had three senior starters and a deep junior class that would have had high expectations of reaching the USA Water Polo Division III Championships. 

Despite a career that was cut in half, the Class of 2021 still contributed to an 18-win season in 2018, the highest total for the Athenas since the 2004 team reached the 20-win mark and had an 18-10 SCIAC record in their two full seasons, including an 11-3 mark as first-years. 



The four members of the CMS Women's Water Polo Class of 2021 are as follows: 

Amelia Ayala (Defense, Ventura, Calif. - Claremont McKenna, Neuroscience)
Ayala was a second-team All-America selection in her last full season as a sophomore, and earned honorable mention All-America honors after a shortened junior campaign. She scored 75 goals in two-plus seasons, including a team-high 32 as a sophomore when she also added 13 assists and 30 steals, including five goals in a win over Chapman and four hat tricks in SCIAC play. As a junior, she had a four-goal game against Sonoma State, and had two goals against nationally ranked UC Santa Barbara. A neuroscience major at Claremont McKenna, Ayala has been actively involved on campus as the Co-President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, as a student archive manager in the alumni and parent engagement offices, and as a student mentor with Uncommon Good. 

Chandlyr Denaro (Center, Irvine, Calif. - Claremont McKenna, Neuroscience)
Denaro was a versatile player for the Athenas, beginning her career as a goalie in 2018 as a first-year, finishing with a 7.87 goals against average, and then playing center as a sophomore and junior. She had 20 goals as a sophomore, finishing fourth on the team in goals scored, including a season-high four in a win over Redlands. She also scored twice against Division I power Loyola Marymount, and then had five goals and 16 drawn exclusions in her shortened junior campaign. A SCIAC All-Academic Team and an ACWPC All-Academic Team selection as a neuroscience major at Claremont McKenna, Denaro has worked as a research assistant on campus and plans to pursue a career in psychology. 

Anna Fry (Defense, San Jose, Calif. - Harvey Mudd, Computer Science)
Fry had a significant impact for the Athenas in all three of her seasons as a defeder, earning honorable mention All-America status as a junior. She had 42 goals in her career, including a career-high six points (three goals, three assists) in a narrow 10-9 win over Whittier. In her shortened junior season, she had an impressive 20 steals already, as well as five goals, which included two against Division I Bucknell. A SCIAC All-Academic selection and a ACWPC All-Academic team selection as a computer science major at Harvey Mudd, Fry is a member of the Society of Women Engineers, has worked as a software engineer intern at Uber and an intern with Toyota's Aerospace Systems team, and was a clinic capstone team member on campus for CrowdStrike.

Katharine Larsen (Attack, Milford, Conn. - Harvey Mudd, Engineering)
Larsen was a lefty attacker for the CMS women's water polo team as a first-year in 2018, helping CMS to an 18-win season, and returned to the team as a junior before the shut down of sports in March. She picked up an assist in a win over Ottawa and earned a spot on the SCIAC All-Academic Team as an engineering major at Harvey Mudd. She has been active on Mudd's campus as a student researcher, working with city officials, developers and sustainability experts to redevelop part of the Claremont Village as a Net Zero Energy Transit Oriented Development. In the summer, she served as a design engineer with Niagara Bottling, and has held an internship since June as a design and test engineer with the Adept Group. In June, she will begin a full-time position at Heliogen as a sales engineering analyst.