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680 Drivers take home silver in junior olympics
Local team ranked No. 2 in the nation

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A group of nine-and-10-year-olds from Danville, Alamo and Walnut Creek took home the silver medal in the Water Polo Junior Olympics.

The Water Polo Junior Olympics is the largest national tournament for youth water polo in the United States. It is comprised of early 500 teams from 11 zones throughout the United States. There are five age groups for each gender and they spent eight days battling to see who the national champion is. The under-10 group is the only mixed gender age group competing.

In their first game at Stanford University on Thursday, 680 got off to an early start with 14-1 win over Shore Aquatics from Long Beach. They later took Orange County in a closely matched 4-1 victory.

Friday found 680 besting Pacific Polo Club 12-4 before taking on No. 4 seed International Polo Club from Los Alamitos. In the past year, 680 had faced International twice and came up short on both occasions. This time, International started out ahead in the first quarter, but were down by one at the half. The second half of the game was dominated by 680 with a final score of 10-4.

After three and a half days of undefeated play, our the 680 Drivers faced the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, Irvine's Kahuna, in the championship game at Stanford University. Having beat 680 twice this year, Kahuna was looking for an easy win, but 680 rose to the occasion with a 10-5 win.

Sunday morning at De Anza College pit 680 against International again in a much closer game that ended 6-4, with International headed home. This placed the Drivers undefeated going into the National Championship game and facing Kahuna from yet again. The final showdown was held at noon on Sunday in Stanford University's Avery Stadium.

Both teams brought their A game to Stanford, but in the end, Irvine squeaked out the victory. In the closely matched game, Kahuna came out on top 8-6 giving 680 the number two rank in the U.S. and the silver medal.

The silver medal accomplishment is so rare that this is only the second time in history that any of the nine age group teams from the 680 Drivers have received a medal at the Jr. Olympics. The only other occasion was also a silver medal this year by the under-14 boys.

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