Twin Peaks: Jake and Owen Taylor Reach the Summit Together
By Alex Ellison
Twin brothers Jake and Owen Taylor took different routes through collegiate water polo, but the 2025 season brought them both to similar destinations: national championship titles. Jake anchored the defense as goalkeeper for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags during a season that culminated in a USAWP Division III National Championship. Owen, a versatile utility player, helped lead the Cal Poly Mustangs’ club program to the Collegiate Club National Championship.
Competing at different levels and in different roles, the brothers found parallel yet individual success, thanks to a foundation that shaped them both.
Jake and Owen began playing water polo together in sixth grade and continued as teammates through high school at Menlo-Atherton in Northern California. Both were goalkeepers who split time in the cage until their coach delivered a pivotal message before their sophomore year: one of them had to switch positions.
Owen made the move to utility player, a decision that allowed both brothers to thrive. Owen became a high-level shooter while Jake gained more consistent goalkeeper reps. Their familiarity with one another was an extra advantage during training, as each one helped the other improve his game.
“Typically I would lean left when I shot. It is not something I was even paying attention to, but Jake pointed it out after seeing me shoot one time,” Owen said. “I tweaked my mechanics a little bit and, next thing you know, I was shooting harder and more accurately.”
Their partnership only deepened during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
“We would go to pools just the two of us and even if we didn’t have a cage, (Owen) would shoot on me,” Jake explained. “That way, we both kept ourselves in shape so we could come back strong when our seasons started.”
The brothers could also be fiery, and the intense nature of Division III water polo eventually gave Jake a slight edge.
“In games Jake is probably more competitive,” Owen said, “but at practice we are both pretty intense (and) every time I swam in the offseason (and at practice), I would think about making it to the national championship game and winning it all.”
For Jake and his CMS team, that belief was strengthened by a pair of upset victories over Division I opponents in the fall. On September 14 against Harvard, the Stags trailed, 2-5, after the first quarter then rallied for a 12–11 buzzer-beater to win at home at Axelrood Pool in Claremont, California. Jake posted 10 saves and four steals in the comeback to signal that CMS could compete with anyone.
Then, on October 3, CMS upset No. 13 UC Irvine to mark the first time that season that CMS beat a ranked opponent from any division. The contest featured 11 ties and six lead changes before CMS scored the game-winner with one minute to go. In yet another clutch performance, Jake recorded nine saves and three steals. Those two home victories not only galvanized the Stags, but they foreshadowed the USAWP Division III National Championship, where CMS hosted and defeated Pomona-Pitzer, 9-4, to win the national title.
The victory not only gave CMS vengeance over Pomona-Pitzer for handing the Stags their fifth and final loss of the regular season, but it also earned Jake All-Tournament Team honors for tallying 20 combined saves in the semifinal and championship game.
Courtesy: Sherie Smith, CWPA
Meanwhile, over at Cal Poly, Owen and his team were regrouping after losing to UC San Diego in the semifinal of the 2024 National Collegiate Club Championship. The Mustangs had been student-run that year and believed they had championship talent, but changes were necessary. The most significant shift came when head coach Scott Thornton arrived.
Thornton had been a three-time All-American at UCLA (1982-84), an Australian national champion with Victoria (1986), and a member of the United States men’s national team from 1985-90 who had competed in the 1989 FINA Cup. Thornton had also won multiple Masters’ National Championships in the 40+, 45+, 50+, and 60+ age groups. His knowledge and experience were vital.
The Mustangs adopted a looser, more easy-going approach to the season that emphasized fun and connection in addition to hard work. Two comeback victories over Long Beach State’s club team were turning points that proved to the Cal Poly players that no situation was too big to overcome.
So when Cal Poly earned a rematch with three-time defending champion UC San Diego in the national championship game at Carlisle Family YMCA in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, that mindset paid off. This time, the Mustangs prevailed, 9-8, over the Tritons to claim the title.
Owen’s leadership played a central role in the team’s run.
“I have always been a leader and I pride myself on that,” said Owen, a senior, who earned All-Tournament Second Team honors. “But this season in particular, we all had to make that jump,” he added.
Even with coach Thornton’s guidance, Owen said, “We still had to come up with a plan for the season. How do we want to run our practices? How do we want to train? And how do we want to set the right mentality moving forward this season? It’s not built in one day; it takes consistency every single day to keep pushing, knowing that all that hard work is going to pay off.”
Watching each other succeed only raised the stakes for the twins.
When Jake saw Owen win the national club title, he knew it had been a tough three-year process. “Seeing him finally bring it home also motivated me,” Jake said, explaining that “I couldn’t be the brother that doesn’t win a championship.”
Owen recognized the spark he ignited in Jake.
“It’s incredible,” Owen said after watching Jake’s Division III championship game. “It was probably the best game I’ve ever seen Jake play. Jake and I talked about what we wanted for our upcoming seasons. We discussed the fact that if we could end up on top in our respective water polo careers, it would be a beautiful ending to our story.”
Competing separately at the varsity Division III and collegiate club levels, the twins proved that growth and fulfillment are not confined to a single division but extend to those who are willing to fully commit and believe in their paths.