Many former Bruins have represented the USA Men’s Water Polo Senior National Team, from three-time All-American Max Irving to recent graduate-turned-professional Jack Larsen.

Following in their footsteps, Westwood’s next generation of international stars is beginning to pave its own path on the global stage.

And the USA Men’s Water Polo Junior National Team did just that at the 2025 World Aquatics U20 Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, from June 14 to June 21, finishing with a silver medal.

Rising sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd, rising sophomore utilities Peter Castillo and Bode Brinkeman and rising junior utility Ben Liechty all competed for the national team.

“I think it’s incredible,” Dodd said. “Everyone who’ll go back to UCLA is getting such a great experience playing against players from other countries, so that’s a huge win for the UCLA team.”

As team captain, the Long Beach, California, local led the team in scoring in four of its seven games, notching at least three goals in all but one match.

Dodd – who was named tournament MVP – has a wealth of international experience. He is also a member of the USA Men’s Senior National Team and helped Team USA capture a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“I take every practice so seriously that when it’s in-game, it feels like a practice in a sense,” Dodd said. “The confidence from practice rolls over.”

The American U20 team began preliminary group play in a gauntlet featuring Croatia, Hungary and Montenegro.

The United States dropped its first two matchups against Croatia and Hungary, losing 10-19 and 12-13, respectively. The squad then picked up its singular victory in group play against Montenegro, winning 16-10.

Brinkema poured in five goals on a .500 shot percentage, and Liechty and Castillo each had a pair of their own across the three affairs.

After finishing third in its group, a decisive 23-5 victory against Iran in crossover play – the largest American margin of victory of the tournament – punched the U.S.’ quarterfinal ticket.

“We knew we could win the tournament,” Castillo said. “We were capable of doing all of that, but we knew we needed to look at it not by the whole tournament. We needed to look at it possession by possession.”

The U.S. entered a penalty shootout against Serbia – the same country that won gold at the 2024 Olympics – in the quarterfinals. The American squad won the shootout with five goals to Serbia’s four.

Dodd boasted his strongest tournament performance against Serbia, with seven goals on a .636 scoring clip.

He followed that up with another six goals in an 18-16 semifinal victory over Hungary.

Across those two games, Castillo delivered four goals while Brinkema added three.

The UCLA athletes on the U20 roster credited their collegiate experience for helping them prepare for international competitions, as all four were members of the 2024 NCAA men’s water polo championship team.

“When you go to Europe, things change,” Castillo said. “You have to have a certain understanding of the game. At UCLA, we’re able to go step-by-step. We have that time to practice – to develop that fundamental understanding of how the game works. It makes it really easy to transition from that collegiate level or domestic level into international.”

Although Liechty – who is also set to practice with the senior team soon – only netted two goals total across the quarterfinal and semifinal, he had his first multi-goal performance of the tournament in the final against Spain.

Castillo and Brinkema also met the back of the net once and twice, respectively.

“As a team, we did a really good job of building each game and getting better from each game to the next and throughout each game,” Liechty said. “We were all just getting better consistently.”

Despite leading by two at halftime, the U.S. squad faltered in the second half and gave up nine total goals, resulting in its defeat.

The tournament’s last matchup was also the only game where Dodd had fewer than three goals.

“Credit to Spain,” Dodd said. “They had a good game plan. They had a well-rounded team, so they were able to send bodies into the game to all give 100%. It made it really tiring to play.”

Still, Team USA earned its highest placement in men’s program’s history, and UCLA water polo may have driven that success.

“It’s what Adam (UCLA water polo coach Adam Wright) does,” Dodd said. “He spends countless hours, countless days and countless months developing players to become the best versions of themselves. His time and effort into making us better players showed at a tournament like that.”