Grand Oaks Wins Water Polo 2026 Boys and Girls District Championships
Updated: 15 hours ago
The Grizzlies claim the first district championships of the 2026-27 school year, with the girls controlling their final and the boys rallying in the fourth quarter to win by one.
Athletics | Water Polo 2026 District Championship
GIRLS: GRAND OAKS 17, CONROE 5
BOYS: GRAND OAKS 12, COLLEGE PARK 11
Friday, Oct. 2, 2026 | CONROE ISD Wilkinson Natatorium
SHENANDOAH, Texas — Grand Oaks won the 2026 district championships in both girls and boys water polo Friday at CISD Wilkinson Natatorium, completing two very different title runs with a 17-5 girls victory over Conroe and a 12-11 boys win over College Park.
The championships are the first district titles of the 2026-27 school year for Grand Oaks. Both Grizzlies teams entered the district tournament undefeated in district play at 5-0, earned the No. 1 seeds and finished Friday with championship trophies.
For the girls, Grand Oaks established control before Conroe could get on the scoreboard.
The Grizzlies scored the first 12 goals of the championship game, with seven Grand Oaks players eventually scoring in the 17-5 victory.
Senior Brooklyn Carruth led Grand Oaks with five goals. Senior Aurora Stewart scored four, freshman Ella Dulworth scored three, and sophomore Meagan Graham added two.
Sophomore Jonni Murray, freshman Ava Hogue and junior Ellie Huth each scored once.
That balance allowed Grand Oaks to build its lead while keeping Conroe from leaning on any single defensive matchup.
Conroe captain Kendall Swims scored all five Tigers goals. Conroe finished second in the district tournament after reaching the championship with an 11-10 semifinal victory over Oak Ridge.
The title capped a one-sided Friday for the Grand Oaks girls. The No. 1-seeded Grizzlies opened the day with a 16-1 semifinal victory over The Woodlands before defeating No. 2 Conroe 17-5 in the final.
Freshman Kiley Neil gives Grand Oaks an exceptional young presence in goal. Already an outstanding goalkeeper as a ninth-grader, Neil is a player to watch as she develops through the next three seasons. Her early performance puts her on a path where college programs from around the country could soon begin taking notice.
Grand Oaks coach Nicholas Veedell said the girls had continued to develop their identity throughout the season after facing difficult competition early.
“We learned who we were, what our identity was, and we built on that identity from game one,” Veedell said. “And these girls, they’re resilient.”
Veedell also pointed to the way the girls communicate and work together.
“They like to battle and they like to have fun, but more importantly, they like to win,” Veedell said. “They communicate well and they work well with each other. So it’s good team chemistry.”
The boys championship followed a much different script.
Grand Oaks defeated Conroe 17-7 in the semifinal, while College Park survived a 16-15 semifinal against Oak Ridge. That put the tournament’s top two seeds together in the final — two teams whose players already knew plenty about one another.
College Park captain Sebastian Lastraloginow led the Cavaliers with eight goals in the championship. Sunny Moozoun scored twice, and Jayden Velasquez added one.
Grand Oaks countered with five scorers. Senior Evan Jonecky scored four goals, senior Max Dopierala had three, and sophomore William Carruth and senior Julian Aldana scored two apiece. Senior Erik Matias added one.
Neither team was able to put the other away, and the championship remained undecided well into the fourth quarter.
With 4:05 remaining, College Park scored to take an 11-10 lead.
Grand Oaks now needed a response with its season-long district unbeaten streak and the championship on the line.
It came from Jonecky.
With 2:59 remaining, Jonecky scored to tie the game 11-11.
Just 27 seconds later, Jonecky struck again.
His goal with 2:32 left put Grand Oaks ahead 12-11, completing a two-goal Grizzlies swing in a span of 27 seconds and turning a College Park lead into the eventual championship-winning margin.
Jonecky had scored Grand Oaks’ final two goals of the game — the tying goal and the go-ahead goal.
But there were still more than two minutes to play.
Grand Oaks did not score again. It did not need to.
The Grizzlies kept College Park off the scoreboard for the final 2 minutes, 32 seconds, forcing the championship to be decided as much by protecting a one-goal lead as by the two goals that created it.
The matchup being that close was no surprise to Veedell.
“Every time we play College Park, it’s always a battle,” he said.
Veedell said many of the players compete with one another outside the high school season through club water polo and summer swimming, creating a familiarity that carries into the Grand Oaks-College Park matchup.
“These kids, they play with each other in club, they know each other outside of school from summer league swim, so it’s a tight-knit community, and they like to play, especially against each other,” Veedell said. “So the boys knew coming into this that they would have to fight tooth and nail.”
That fight was still going with 13 seconds remaining.
With Grand Oaks protecting its 12-11 lead, Veedell delivered one final message to his players.
“This is the greatest 13 seconds of your lives right here, gentlemen,” Veedell recalled telling them.
Those 13 seconds were not about finding another goal. Jonecky had already provided the go-ahead score more than two minutes earlier.
They were about finishing.
College Park never found the equalizer, and the Grizzlies closed out the 12-11 victory.
The fast finish also reflected the personality Veedell sees in his boys team. He said trying to slow the Grizzlies down can be difficult even from the bench.
“They’re full of adrenaline, and so trying to get that kind of team to slow down, it’s tough, even for a coach,” Veedell said. “They want to go, they want to go, they want to score, they want to be the best every single play, and it shows.”
Both the Grand Oaks boys and girls teams arrived at the tournament with perfect 5-0 district records. Veedell said the boys entered Friday 22-3 overall and the girls entered 21-4. Both remained unbeaten against district opponents after winning their semifinal and championship games.
Grand Oaks entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed in both brackets. Conroe was the No. 2 seed on the girls side, while College Park was No. 2 in the boys tournament.
Oak Ridge finished third in both divisions. The War Eagles girls defeated The Woodlands 13-4 in the consolation game, while the Oak Ridge boys defeated Conroe 14-7.
For Grand Oaks, the two championships came in distinctly different ways.
One championship came with separation.
The other came down to the final possession.
Both ended with Grand Oaks as the 2026 district champion.
By The Woodlands Student Center Staff
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