The Peter J. Cutino Award, named after former college water polo player and UC Berkeley coach Peter J. Cutino, is considered the most prestigious individual award in American collegiate water polo. It is given annually to the top male and female player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
History The award was first presented in 1999 by the Trustees of The Olympic Club in San Francisco.The Cutino Chronicles Retrieved 2007-08-08 The Club, founded in 1860 to support amateur athletics in the Bay Area, is one of America's oldest athletic clubs.The Olympic Club: History Retrieved 2007-08-08 Nominees for the Cutino Award are selected by the Division I water polo coaches. These coaches vote for three players as nominees, none of which can be members of their own team. The eventual winner is voted on again by the same coaches, who now rank the nominees and can vote for members of their own teams. The Olympic Club, which tabulates the votes, does not release the number of votes to avoid manipulation of the totals. Each winner receives a brass and walnut trophy, and the perpetual trophy is on display at the Olympic Club of San Francisco.
Originally the award was announced after the end of both the men's (December) and women's (May) college seasons. Former major league baseball commissioner and US Olympic Committee chair Peter Ueberroth, himself once a water polo player at San Jose State, presented the first awards on January 22, 2000. The 2001 women's winner, Coralie Simmons, was presented with her award almost a year after her season had ended because the Trustees decided to change the cycle to coincide with the academic year. Thus in June 2002, Simmons won the 2001 award, while Brenda Villa received the 2002 women's Cutino at the same ceremony. The nominees are now announced each spring, before the end of the women's NCAA water polo season, but well after the men's season ends in December of the prior year. The award ceremony is held at an Olympic Club facility in San Francisco, shortly after the Women's NCAA Championship is decided.
Peter J. Cutino Award winners Year Men's winner School Year Presented Women's winner School 1999 Sean Kern UCLA 1999 Bernice Orwig USC 2000 Sean Kern UCLA 2000 Aniko Pelle USC 2001 Tony Azevedo Stanford University 2001/2002 Coralie Simmons / Brenda VillaCoralie was awarded in June 2001, but celebrated in June 2002, Brenda won for 2002 and was celebrated in 2002 UCLA / Stanford 2002 Tony Azevedo Stanford University 2003 Jackie Frank Stanford University 2003 Tony Azevedo Stanford University 2004 Moriah van Norman USC 2004 Tony Azevedo Stanford University 2005 Natalie Golda UCLA 2005 Juraj Zatovic USC 2006 Lauren Wenger USC 2006 John Mann University of California, Berkeley 2007 Kelly Rulon UCLA 2007 Tim Hutten UC Irvine 2008 Courtney Mathewson UCLA 2008 J. W. Krumpholz USC 2009 Kami Craig USC 2009 J. W. Krumpholz USC 2010 Kami Craig USC 2010 Ivan Rackov University of California, Berkeley 2011 Annika Dries Stanford University 2011 Joel Dennerley USC 2012 Kiley Neushul Stanford University 2012 Balazs Erdelyi University of the Pacific 2013 Melissa Seidemann Stanford University 2013 Balazs Erdelyi University of the Pacific 2014 Annika Dries Stanford University 2014 Konstantinos Genidounias USC 2015 Kiley Neushul Stanford University 2015 Garrett Danner UCLA 2016 Stephania Haralabidis USC 2016 McQuin Baron USC 2017 Ashleigh Johnson Princeton University 2017 Luca Cupido University of California, Berkeley 2018 Amanda Longan USC 2018 Ben Hallock Stanford University 2019 Makenzie Fischer Stanford University 2019 Ben Hallock Stanford University 2020 COVID - No Season 2020 Nicolas Saveljic UCLA 2021 Maud Megens USC2021 Nikolaos Papanikolaou University of California, Berkeley 2022 Makenzie Fischer Stanford University2022 Nikolaos Papanikolaou University of California, Berkeley 2023 Aria Fischer Stanford University2023 Nikolaos Papanikolaou University of California, Berkeley 2024 Isabel Williams University of California, Berkeley 2024 Ryder Dodd UCLA 2025 Ryann Neushul Stanford University2025 Ryder Dodd UCLA 2026 Emily Ausmus USC (Source: Olympic ClubOlympic Club San Francisco: 2015 Peter Cutino Awards Banquet Retrieved 2015-06-14) (Source: Swimming World MagazineSwimming World: Goalies Rule - Princeton’s Johnson, USC’s Baron Win Cutino Awards Retrieved 2018-09-20) (Source: Swimming World MagazineSwimming World: Cupido and Longan Capture 2018 Cutino Awards at The Olympic Club Retrieved 2018-09-20)
Notes
See also USA Water Polo Hall of Fame
External links NCAA Water Polo The Olympic Club of San Francisco Swimming World Magazine