The562’s coverage of aquatic sports in Long Beach in 2025-26 is sponsored by Watersafe Swim School.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The Wilson Bruins showed love to the Class of 2026 prior to Tuesday night’s Moore League matchup against crosstown rivals Long Beach Poly.
Then, an all-senior starting lineup got in the pool and showed the Bruins’ dominance in a 23-5 victory over the Jackrabbits at the brand new Wilson Aquatics Center.
“We had a good weekend this past weekend, and we’re sitting in the top six or seven in Open (Division) right now, so we just wanted to see some of the things we worked on last night, and we saw some of it there,” said Wilson head coach Barry O’Dea of his team’s performance. “We’re trying to be respectful of everybody in the league, but we have Newport tomorrow, so there’s some things we can’t slow down too much on. Finding a balance in that is always hard to do, but they did well tonight.”
Wilson sophomore Bella Salley-Najjarian scored a game-high five goals–all in the second quarter–to lead her team to the lopsided victory. The Bruins won the second quarter 7-0 to pull away for a 13-2 lead at halftime.
“It was fun to have awesome teammates. And I think going into that second quarter, we knew we needed to pick it up,” said Salley-Najjarian. “We came out and did what we were good at: looking for cross passes, countering hard, finishing our shots, and execution. That’s been our whole theme this year is execution, and working on our passes.”
O’Dea made sure to expand his rotation for the occasion, even making changes to his starting lineup. Senior Jasmine Atalla, playing water polo for the first time this year, got her first varsity start for the Bruins on Tuesday.
Other 12th graders who are fixtures in the lineup put up some good numbers as well, with senior Kate Tunnicliff recording four goals and classmates Reece Haga and Grace Walker each recording a hat trick. They’re part of the first graduating class to use the new aquatics facility at Wilson, and have seen the program steadily rise up the rankings during their careers.
“All of the seniors here have been so supportive, and everybody has been so amazing,” said Tunnicliff, reflecting on her career as a Bruin. “And getting to experience it in a new pool has been so amazing … My whole career here, we’ve worked up our rankings, and now we’re in the Open Division, we’re seeded pretty well. And so now getting to have a new pool just to validate our hard work is so rewarding, and I’m thankful to be here.”
The Bruins even got senior goalie Teagan Shandrew-Pearsall out of the cage, and she was able to score a goal for Wilson in the fourth quarter. A total of 11 different Bruins scored on the night.
On the other end of the pool, Poly was led by two goals apiece from Sequoia Newman and Pearl Taylor.
Wilson will be back in the pool on Wednesday at Newport Harbor before returning to league play next Tuesday at Millikan. Next up for Long Beach Poly is a trip to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame on Thursday.
