Making Waves

Agustina Flores Pitton ’19 recently returned from the National Water Polo Championships, where she and her team earned bronze. Agustina has been playing water polo since Grade 7. Growing up, she lived in Australia for seven years, where water polo was a popular sport. “I really love it,” says Agustina, who has been swimming for most of her life. Water polo is a demanding, high-energy sport, and Agustina trains all year round with the Saanich Water Polo School. There are about six tournaments a year, which she competes in as part of a U19 team. Before Nationals, she went to the Western Canadian Championships with a team who hadn’t worked together much before. “There was a bunch of different players, and no one expected us to do well,” she says. “We were underdogs at the beginning of the year.” The team ended up placing second overall, and Agustina got the news she would be going to Nationals. She had been before, back in Australia, though the competition there was much less stiff than at Canadian Nationals. The tournament took place in Edmonton at the end of May. Agustina’s team played three games: first they took on the second-place Eastern regional team, who they beat. In semi-finals, they lost to a team from Saskatchewan. Their final game was against the first-place Eastern team. The game was extremely close, and ended up going to a shootout; at the end of the day, Agustina’s team lost by only one point, securing them a bronze medal finish. Now that the season is over, Agustina plans to fill her summer with more training and bootcamps. Agustina encourages anyone interested in learning more about Water Polo to get in touch with her. “Swimming experience helps, but it’s more just having a mind for the game and competitiveness. It’s a game to give your all, especially if you enjoy working on a team.” Great work, Agustina, and congratulations!