Courtesy: USC Athletics
USC men’s water polo has slotted five Trojans on the All-America awards list for 2023, led by First Team selection Max Miller. He’s one of four first-time All-Americans joining two-time All-American Massimo Di Martire on the honor roll, with Carson Kranz, Zach Bettino and Bernardo Herzer also picking up their first All-America accolades from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches.
The Trojans’ scoring leader with 46 goals and countless exclusions earned, senior two-meter man Max Miller adds First Team All-America status to his resume, following up on his selection to the Cutino Award Watch Lis and going along with MPSF Tournament MVP, All-MPSF First Team and NCAA All-Tournament First Team honors picked up in 2023. A seven-goal outburst from Miller in a USC win at Cal helped propel the Trojans to the MPSF Tournament championship, securing a 19th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament for USC. In all, Miller scored 46 goals with a team-high 15 multiple-goal outings.
In his two years as a Trojan, grad student Massimo Di Martire wraps his water polo career as a 2023 Second Team All-American to go along with First Team honors picked up in 2022. Di Martire scored his 100th career goal during the 2023 postseason, and finished out the year with 40 goals while scoring in a team-high 20 different games. Also on the Cutino Award Watch list with Miller, Di Martire was named to the MPSF All-Tournament Team and the NCAA All-Tournament Second Team while also picking up a spot on the All-MPSF Second Team.
Weighing in with his first All-America honors after a monster senior season, Carson Kranz has landed a spot on the Second Team with Di Martire. Kranz was USC’s third leading scorer in 2023 with 32 goals, scoring in 18 games with nine multiple-goal outings. He punched up seven goals during USC’s postseason action, earning a spot on the MPSF and NCAA All-Tournament second teams while also scoring All-MPSF First Team honors.
Both in their first seasons of action at USC, Zach Bettino and Bernardo Herzer made major impacts for the Trojans in 2023 en route to securing All-America Honorable Mention. Lefty freshman Bettino was fifth on USC’s scoring slate with 24 goals, including a memorable four-goal outing that included the game-winner vs. Stanford early in the season. He also notched All-MPSF Honorable Mention. Goalie Herzer stepped into the cage as a redshirt freshman this year, collecting 12 saves in his debut and going on to average 9.6 saves per game in his 19 appearances. He tallied a total of nine double-digit save outings on the year, picking up a spot on the All-MPSF Second Team along the way.
Head coach Marko Pintaric’s 2023 Trojans finished up with a 16-7 overall record after winning the program’s 13th MPSF Tournament Championship and making a 19th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, where the Trojans reached the semifinals. All-Americans Bettino, Herzer, Kranz and Miller are all returning to compete for the Trojans in 2024.