Cal at the Olympics: USA Water Polo Rebounds; Kara Kohler Rows On

Former Golden Bear Johnny Hooper scores twice in water polo victory over Romania; Kohler advances to the semifinals in the women's single sculls

USA attacker Johnny Hooper / Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

Updated

Johnny Hooper and Kara Kohler delivered big performances Tuesday as Cal athletes continued to compete at the Paris Olympics.

Hooper and the USA men’s water polo team claimed their first victory, beating Romania 14-8.

Kohler, meanwhile, continued to move forward in rowing competition, advancing to the semifinal round of the women’s single sculls.

Men’s water polo

USA 14, Romania 8: Cal alum Johnny Hooper scored twice in the first quarter and his teammates took it from there in a decisive victory in group play. 

Team USA evened its record at 1-1 after losing 12-8 to Italy in its opener on Sunday. Romania dropped to 0-2 in group play.

Hooper, a 27-year-old attacker who scored 245 goals for Cal from 2015-18, had USA’s first goal to knot the score early then scored again with 2:11 left in the first period to make it 3-3. He has three goals in USA’s first two games.

The Americans outscored Romania 7-1 over the next two quarters to take charge.

Goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg, who anchored Cal’s 2021-22-23 NCAA championships, played the entire game and had 14 saves against 22 shots.

USA returns to action Thursday against unbeaten Greece. 

Greece 17, Montenegro 16: Former Cal star Nikolaos Papanikolaou did not score, but his Greek team remained undefeated in two group play matches with a 17-16 penalty shootout victory over Montenegro.

Greece trailed 4-2 at the end of the first period, 7-5 at halftime and 9-8 entering the final 8-minute quarter. The Greeks took a 12-11 lead on a goal by Angelos Vlachopoulos with 29 seconds left.

But Montenegro forced the penalty shootout when Vasilije Radovic put the ball in the net with 2 seconds left on regulation.

Papanikolaou, a five-time All-American at Cal and three-time winner of the Peter J. Cutino Award as the nation’s top collegiate player, did not have a shot attempt in his 12 minutes, 42 seconds in the pool.

Greece faces USA on Thursday.

Rowing

Kara Kohler, USA: The 33-year-old three-time Olympian moved into the semifinals of the women’s single sculls after a second-place finish in her quarterfinal race.

Kohler, a 2014 Cal graduate, finished in 7:34.96 to cross second behind Australia’s Tara Rigney, who posted a winning time of 7:30.57.

Kohler will race Thursday in a semifinal featuring New Zealand’s 37-year-old legend Emma Twigg, who won her quarterfinal race in the day’s fastest time of 7:26.89. Twigg, in her fifth Olympics, captured the single sculls gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Martin Mackovic, Serbia: Mackovic, 29, and teammate Nikolaj Pimenov finished fourth in the men’s double sculls semifinals in a time of 6:17.35. Only the top three advanced to the Final A, relegating the Serbian duo to Thursday’s Final B.

Mackovic, who rowed for Cal from 2016-18, is competing in his second Olympics.

Tim Roth, Switzerland: Roth and men’s four teammates finished last in their five-boat repechage, dropping them to Thursday’s Final B. The foursome came across in 6:00.29, well back of heat winner Italy, which was timed in 5:52.65. 

Roth, who stands 6-foot-8, helped Cal win IRA national collegiate titles in 2022 and 2023 and took over this year to train for his first Olympics.

Badminton

Annie Xu and Kerry Xu, USA: The Xu twin sisters were eliminated after a 21-18, 21-12 to the Bulgarian doubles team of Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva. 

The 24-year-olds, who both graduated from Cal in 2020 with economics degrees, finished group play without a victory in three matches in their Olympic debut. 

Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan, USA: Cal graduates Chiu and Yuan were defeated 21-12, 21-13 by the men’s doubles team of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese-Taipei. 

Chiu and Yuan, first-time Olympians, were eliminated from further competition after falling to 0-3 in group play.

Late Monday, they lost 21-11, 21-12 to the Japanese team of Taker Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.