Trojan Trio In Line For Cutino Award
May 11, 2010 | Men's Water Polo
May 11, 2010
USC seniors Tumua Anae, Kami Craig and J.W. Krumpholz have made it another Trojan tagteam effort as the three USC water polo players have been named finalists for the most prestigious collegiate water polo honor - the Peter J. Cutino Award. The annual award is presented to the top male and top female player in the game, and USC has three finalists in the running for the second straight season. In fact, it is the third time in the past five years that USC has a trio of finalists for the Cutino Award, with Craig and Krumpholz within reach of back-to-back honors as the 2009 recipients.
On both previous occasions that there have been three Trojans in the running for Cutino honors, USC swept the awards. Lauren Wenger and Juraj Zatovic picked up the 2006 high honors, and Craig and Krumpholz swept last season at the 2009 awards.
This year, there again are two USC women and one USC man up for the honors, with two of them in line for potential back-to-back wins. 2009 Cutino Award winner and two-time NCAA champion J.W. Krumpholz is USC's Cutino Award finalist on the men's side for the second straight season. And for the women, 2010 MPSF Player of the Year Tumua Anae and 2009 Cutino Award winner Kami Craig are two of the three female finalists for the Cutino Award as the USC women head into the 2010 NCAA Championships in San Diego this weekend (May 14-6). Craig became the fifth USC woman to win the award with last year's honor, and Krumpholz became the second male Trojan to win.
Anae and Craig's selection as finalists for the Cutino Award bumps USC's total women's finalist tally to 11. Past USC women's Cutino Award winners are: Bernice Orwig (1999), Aniko Pelle (2000), Moriah Van Norman (2004), Lauren Wenger (2006) and Kami Craig (2009). Brittany Hayes was a finalist twice (2005 and 2006), Erika Figge was a finalist in 2007, and Michelle Stein was a 2009 finalist with Craig. Juraj Zatovic and Krumpholz are the only Trojans to win the Cutino Award on the men's side.
It's a USC-Stanford monopoly on the finalist count this year. Joining Anae and Craig as women's finalists is Stanford senior Jessica Steffens. On the men's side, Krumpholz will vie for Cutino honors with Stanford's Jimmie Sandman and Drac Wigo.
The award is given annually to the outstanding female and male collegiate water polo players in the United States as voted by the coaches of the Division I schools in honor of the late Peter J. Cutino, the former University of California Berkeley and The Olympic Club coach, who led Cal to eight NCAA championships and passed away in September 2004.
This year's winners will be announced at the Eleventh Annual Peter J. Cutino Awards Night Dinner to be held Saturday June 5 at The Olympic Club's City Clubhouse in San Francisco.
Past Cutino Award winners:
1999 - Bernice Orwig (USC)
2000 - Aniko Pelle (USC) & Sean Kern (UCLA)
2001 - Coralie Simmons (UCLA) & Sean Kern (UCLA)
2002 - Brenda Villa (Stanford) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2003 - Jackie Frank (Stanford) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2004 - Moriah Van Norman (USC) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2005 - Natalie Golda (UCLA) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2006 - Lauren Wenger (USC) & Juraj Zatovic (USC)
2007 - Kelly Rulon (UCLA) & John Mann (Cal)
2008 - Courtney Mathewson (UCLA) & Tim Hutten (UC Irvine)
2009 - Kami Craig (USC) & J.W. Krumpholz (USC)
