ROCK ISLAND -- In just its third season in existence, the Augustana Vikings men's water polo team earned a fourth-place finish at the USA Water Polo DIII National Tournament over the weekend. The Vikings fell in the third-place contest to No. 4 MIT by a score of 11-9 on Sunday.

After MIT grabbed the first two points of the contest, Oskar Bannister cut the deficit in half for the Vikings with his first score of the game. The Engineers answered with two additional tallies before Stevan Rasic notched a late goal to make the score 4-2 in favor of the visitors after eight minutes of action. Augustana inched closer in the ensuing quarter, pulling even with MIT following back-to-back points from Bannister. The Engineers grabbed the last goal of the half with four minute remaining and led 5-4 at the break.

MIT scored three times in the third and kept the Vikings off the scoreboard, extending its advantaged out to 8-4 with just eight minutes remaining. Augie began the fourth with two straight tallies to pull within two, seeing consecutive goals from Joseph Addison to make it an 8-6 game with seven minutes remaining. Each team secured three more goals down the stretch as MIT successfully held on to its two-score margin all the way until the end to take the game by its 11-9 final. Bannister, Addison, and Ian Palmroos accounted for the final three points for the Vikings.

Bannister led Augustana with four goals on five shots to go with one assist and two steals. He was also named to the All-Tournament Team. Declan Hutton stopped 13 shots in net.

The Vikings end the 2023 season with a 15-8 overall record, the most wins in program history.