RIPON — Ripon’s water polo program enjoyed an historic 2015 campaign despite depth issues.

The boys team dominated en route to earning its first-ever Sac-Joaquin Section title in Division III, crushing Valley Oak League rival Sonora 13-3 in the finals. The girls squad also had a landmark season despite missing the playoffs, finishing with its first winning record at 15-10.

Both teams graduated their top scorers, and the bulk of the program is made up of freshmen and first-year players.

“I look at it more as a rebuilding year,” Ripon boys coach Erik Zador said. His sister, Christine, coaches the girls. “We have some young kids on the team that need to be brought up to speed, and unfortunately they have to be brought up at the varsity level. That doesn’t mean we still don’t have a chance to win league and go back to sections. I don’t know what everyone else has yet so it’s really hard to say.”

Ripon claimed the last four VOL championships and has yet to miss the postseason. Last year’s team finished 17-6 and was led by Kole Gonzales, who amassed 91 goals and earned MVP honors on the All-VOL and All-SJS teams. The Indians are also without All-VOL first-team goalie Darnay Mack and junior Daniel Esenwein, who is spending the year in Italy as a foreign-exchange student.

Ripon will miss Gonzalez’s all-around ability, he was also one of the team’s best defenders, but Zador said he brought more to the table.

“His enthusiasm and his willingness to win,” Zador said. “He was very driven. Hopefully we can find somebody else with that kind of mentality. The opportunity is there for these guys to step into that role.”

Senior Nick Gagnon and third-year junior standout Ty Wells are candidates to fill in as leaders. Wells was Ripon’s second-leading scorer with 48 goals, while Gagnon paced the team in assists with 31 to go with 23 goals.

“We have a lot of younger talent this year — four new players and three of them are freshmen,” Wells said. We’re just kind of flying by the seat of our pants and seeing where it goes.

“There’s a lot on our shoulders this year,” Wells added. “We’re just trying to teach more and get the newer generation of players caught up.”

Ripon has four returners in all. Sophomore Noah Esenwein (26 goals, 25 assists) will factor more into the offense, while senior Diego Moreno brings some experience — though limited — on the defensive end. He began playing the sport last year but emerged as a starter.

“Diego last year was a big help and we’re glad to have him back,” Zador said. “Now it’s a matter of who is going to step into that kind of role next and help out any way possible. We do have some guys who can, they’re just real young.”

Freshmen Jaskehar Sekhon, Micah West and Matthew de la O were part of Zador’s Ripon Aquatics water polo program over the summer. De la O is being groomed as the team’s goalie, and Zador hopes he can bring some stability to the program.

“For the last five years we’ve had five different goalies,” Zador said. “We have to retrain another.”

Different story for the girls team. All-VOL first-team goalie Kyra Foley is the Lady Indians’ most experienced member and is one of just two returning seniors on the team.

“We lost a lot of players last year, but we have a lot of freshman and a transfer from Manteca,” Foley said. “I think they have a lot of ability. They are good swimmers, but this is their first year doing polo. I’m excited to see what they can do. It could be a rough year, but I’m excited to see the team develop and grow. I hope to teach them what I know.”

Ripon’s girls graduated their top scorers in Hannah Sweet (80 goals, 24 assists) and Alexia Urias (32 goals). Senior Andria Martin (44 goals, 26 assists) and juniors Mallory Brubaker (22 goals, 24 assists) and Chloe Winter (28 goals) and sophomore Amber Scheid (eight goals, six assists) are other returners.

Ripon may be hard pressed to qualify for the SJS playoffs, needing a top-two finish in league to do so. The Indians will have reigning champion Oakdale, Kimball and Sonora to contend with, and all bring back deeper and more experienced clubs.

“Unfortunately for our girls, we haven’t had that group really good players come up together,” Zador said. “We’re still trying to build it. I think the next couple of years we’ll get stronger because we’ve had quite a bit of kids in our winter and summer groups that will be coming this way.

“We’ve had such great success here and we want to continue that, but this is one of those years that everyone goes through.”