Annika Dries Leads 2026 USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Classic
Annika Dries, an Olympic gold medalist in 2012, is among four honorees in the 42nd class of inductees to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, announced on Monday.
Joining Dries is Peter Hudnut, Carin Crawford and Chris Judge. The Hall of Fame induction luncheon will be held June 19 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Brea North Orange County in California.
Dries, a standout center from Laguna Beach, won two NCAA titles at Stanford. At age 20, she was part of the U.S. women’s team that won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Dries competed for SET Water Polo and Laguna Beach High, where she won a CIF Southern Section title. She made her international debut in 2006 at Junior Pan Ams and was part of senior national teams that won gold at the World Cup in 2010, Pan American Games in 2011 and Olympics in 2012. At Stanford, she was a captain who won two NCAA titles, was twice named NCAA MVP and won two Peter J. Cutino Awards. A 2024 Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, she earned her M.D. from Stanford and is a resident in internal medicine at UCLA. She also serves as an Olympic ambassador for Swim Across America.
Hudnut is a two-time Olympian center defender who was part of the American team that won a silver medal in 2008. The native of Washington, D.C., settled in Los Angeles in elementary school. He discovered the sport at Harvard-Westlake School, becoming a CIF runner-up, three-time All-American and U.S. junior national teamer. At Stanford, Hudnut led the Cardinal to two NCAA titles with three All-America nods. He was an Olympic alternate in 2004 as he recovered from a broken vertebra, then reintegrated to the team that won gold at the Pan Am Games in 2007 and the silver-winning squad in Beijing a year after. He retired briefly, then returned in 2011 before making the team for the London Olympics in 2012. He also played for European clubs Barceloneta in Spain and Lazio in Italy.
Crawford is one of the most accomplished women’s water polo coaches ever from the San Diego region. The first woman to play on the men’s team at Santa Rosa Junior College, she was a co-captain and All-American at UC San Diego. She competed internationally for the U.S., won multiple domestic titles for Sunset San Diego and remains active at the Masters level, where she played at the World Championships in 2025. She began coaching in 1990 at San Luis Obispo High, then led the girls programs at San Diego Mesa College and Sunset San Diego. She was named the head coach at San Diego State in 1998, where she would spend 24 seasons and win 475 games with three NCAA tournament berths. She produced 52 All-Americans and in 2024 earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. She served on the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee from 2003-07 and was an ACWPC vice president from 2018-22.
Judge, a New York native, began his carer at Fordham in 1976, where he excelled in swimming and water polo, inducted to the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996. He was a team captain and an All-East honoree as both a field player and a goalie. He started playing at New York Athletic Club in 1976, leading it to 14 national titles as player and coach. He was the head coach of Fordham from 1982-89, winning five Metropolitan and one Mid-Atlantic conference championships. He led Army’s men’s club team and age-group programs at Greenwich Aquatics in Connecticut and Hudson Valley Water Polo in New York, the latter of which he currently serves as president for. Judge won gold medals in Masters water polo at the 2014 and 2017 World Championships. He’s the former Chairman of Water Polo at NYAC.
