San Francisco, CA - June 6 - In a reflection of the water polo seasons' Trojan domination, USC's latest national champions swept the Peter J. Cutino Awards for the second straight year. NCAA champs on both the men's and women's sides of the game, USC also claims the top individual honors in the sport, as J.W. Krumpholz and Kami Craig have been named as this year's Cutino Award winners. In a ceremony held Saturday (June 5) at the 11th Annual Peter J. Cutino Awards Night Dinner at The Olympic Club's City Clubhouse in San Francisco, Craig and Krumpholz earned their second straight honors as the nation's top collegiate water polo players and boosted USC's all-time Cutino Award recipient count to nine.
The annual award is presented to the top male and top female player in the game, with three USC finalists up for the Cutino Award for the third time in the past five years. 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 also swept last season at the 2009 awards. This year, Craig and Krumpholz completed yet another USC sweep as the pair now have claimed back-to-back Cutino Awards.
2010 NCAA Tournament MVP Kami Craig became the fifth USC woman to win the award with last year's honor. Now, she is the only female to have earned back-to-back Cutino Awards in the history of the award. In her senior season with the Trojans, Craig secured her third straight place on the All-MPSF First Team. She was an MPSF All-Freshman in 2006 and now has three All-MPSF First Team honors to go with her back-to-back First Team All-American selections to date and last year's Peter J. Cutino Award. The 2008 Olympic silver medalist scored 36 goals for the Women of Troy now in her senior season, striking in 21 different games with 10 multiple-goal outings. She moved into USC's top-10 career scoring list this year, taking over at No. 8 all-time with 152 career goals. Craig also was named MPSF Player of the Week this season, and was named to the 2010 MPSF All-Tournament Team.
Two-time NCAA champion J.W Krumpholz has become the third male all-time to have won more than one Cutino Award during his career as he now holds back-to-back Peter J. Cutino Awards. Already this season, he became the first Trojan to be named National Player of the Year back-to-back. Krumpholz picked up All-America honorable mention and third team honors in his first two seasons as a Trojan before claiming first team selections in his junior and senior years. He wrapped up his final year at USC holding 138 career goals to rank No. 11 all-time at USC. In addition to being a 2008 Olympic silver medalist, Krumpholz was the Peter J. Cutino Award winner last year before helping lead the Trojans to back-to-back NCAA championships with their 2009 victory over UCLA. Krumpholz scored 37 goals in his senior season and closes out his career as a three-time NCAA All-Tournament first team selection and a three-time All-MPSF pick, earning third team honors in 2007 and first team accolades in 2008 and 2009.
It was a USC-Stanford monopoly on the finalist count this year. Joining Craig as a women's finalist was her Trojan teammate, senior goalie Tumua Anae, who was named the MPSF Player of the Year this season. The USC pair was also up for this year's Cutino Award with Stanford senior Jessica Steffens. On the men's side, Krumpholz was vying for Cutino honors with Stanford's Jimmie Sandman and Drac Wigo.
USC's third finalist for this year's award was certainly a deserving candidate. An NCAA champion and 2010 MPSF Player of the Year Tumua Anae became just the sixth Trojan to be named the conference's top player, joining former Cutino Award-winning USC goalie Bernice Orwig as the only goalies to earn that honor. A two-time First Team All-American and All-MPSF pick on her way into her senior season at Troy, Anae bumped her career saves total to 714 to stand as USC's all-time saves leader on record. This season, Anae notched double-digit saves in 16 different games to average 9.6 saves per game on the year and lead the conference in saves. Only 5.0 goals per game slipped by Anae, who also picked up her fifth career selection as an MPSF Player of the Week after posting 14 saves in her final home game as a Trojan. Also this season, Anae earned her third straight selection to the All-MPSF First Team, and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament First Team after the Women of Troy won th e 2010 NCAA Championship.
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.
Past USC women's Cutino Award winners have been: Bernice Orwig (1999), Aniko Pelle (2000), Moriah Van Norman (2004), Lauren Wenger (2006) and Kami Craig (2009 & 2010). Juraj Zatovic and J.W. Krumpholz are the only Trojans to win the Cutino Award on the men's side.
All-time Peter J. 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)
2010 – Kami Craig (USC) & J.W. Krumpholz (USC)
