CMU launched its first official water polo club, joining the Rocky Mountain Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association and continuing the school’s success in unique sports
Colorado Mesa University (CMU) has consistently made efforts to support and fund niche sports that are not typically offered at many schools nationwide. For the first time, CMU’s official water polo club team competed in the Rocky Mountain Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) on Sept. 20-21, 2025. Members of the CWPA include Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, University of New Mexico, University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Utah.
The Collegiate Water Polo Association is a nonprofit athletic conference made up of four-year colleges and universities. Unlike other conferences, the CWPA includes both varsity and collegiate club programs, which compete for a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or National Collegiate Club (NCCC) Championship.
To begin the season, CMU hosted the first regular-season tournament in the El Pomar Natatorium over the weekend of Sept. 20-21. In October, the team will travel to Salt Lake City, Utah for a tournament hosted by the University of Utah.
The past weekend's competition was a first for CMU, as it was the first time the club team hosted a tournament in El Pomar Natatorium. Water polo has existed in various forms on campus since 2012, when the Kinesiology Department introduced it as an activity class. This allowed students to not only compete in the sport but also learn the game, since it was not a sanctioned high school sport in the state of Colorado. The presence of water polo on CMU’s campus provides exposure to Western Slope students and also serves as an out-of-state attraction for students from California, Texas and Illinois.
When the team grew its roster to 15-20 students in 2019, they were allowed to field an exhibition team, but the spring of 2020 halted this effort due to COVID-19. This caused students to graduate or transfer before they could become a sanctioned club sport.
"The addition of Colorado Mesa to the conference has been great. Growing the sport in the Rocky Mountain region is a high priority for our league and having schools like Colorado Mesa, with a strong organization and participation within their club raises the quality of play in the division. We look forward to their involvement for years to come and hope that it will encourage other schools to join as well,” said Collegiate Water Polo Association Commissioner Daniel Sharadin.
Niche sports like water polo and the sports tourism associated with hosting large competitions bring unique benefits to small communities like Grand Junction. These competitions attract visitors who might not otherwise travel here, in turn introducing new audiences to the region and boosting local businesses such as hotels, restaurants and shops. These gatherings also showcase the community’s natural amenities and facilities, encouraging repeat opportunities to host.
Grand Junction and CMU became a hub for extracurricular sporting events, hosting cycling championships, the Junior College World Series and the county’s first wakeboarding competition through the Grand Junction Sports Commission, led by executive director Ben Snyder.
With the new addition of water polo, CMU is showcasing another successful club sport. Alpine Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Cycling, Hockey, Rodeo and Women’s Rugby have all shown continued success for the university.
- The Alpine Skiing team qualified for National Championships numerous times and head coach Jesse Scott was the 2023 USCSA Coach of the Year.
- The Nordic Skiing team has hosted races themselves and even hold a 7.5k Individual National Champion in Iver Skaarseth.
- CMU's Cycling teams have consistently been the most dominant program in the country with 93 individual National Champions, 21 Team Discipline National Championships and 8 overall Omnium National Championships. They were also recently crowned the Collegiate Road National Champions for the fourth consecutive year.
- On the ice, the CMU Hockey team has produced multiple winning record seasons and beat multiple high-level schools.
- Both men’s and women’s Rodeo won multiple National Championships and crowned individual National Champions.
- Finally, the women’s Rugby team is coming off a national seventh-place finish, beating schools like Georgia Tech and Bowling Green.
- CMU’s Beach Volleyball team has also consistently ranked high in the nation and was the first landlocked university to win the National Championship.
All this success comes from CMU’s state-of-the-art facilities, encouraging sports tourism and creating opportunities for determined athletes to compete. Colorado Mesa University’s water polo team is looking to live up to the strong success CMU has had over the past decade.