June 4, 2018 San Francisco, CA - June 4 - USC junior Amanda Longan (Moorpark, CA/USC/Santa Barbara 805) and California senior Luca Cupido (Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy/California/Olympic Club) were named the 2018 recipients of the Cutino Award on Saturday in San Francisco. The honor, named after legendary water polo coach Peter J. Cutino, recognizes the best female and male player in the college game. The duo, both standouts for the USA Water Polo National Teams, were honored at The Olympic Club for their stellar seasons that saw USC win the 2018 NCAA Women's Championship and Cal reach the semifinals of the 2017 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. 

Scroll down for more information on each winner.

Luca Cupido - Cutino Award Winner - CalBears.com

SAN FRANCISCO – After capping a legendary collegiate career with an incredible senior season, Luca Cupido now holds a place in water polo history reserved only for the greats as on Saturday he was named the recipient of the 2017-18 Peter J. Cutino Award in a banquet held at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Cupido is the first Golden Bear to win the award since Ivan Rackov in 2010 and joins John Mann (2006) as the only Cal players to earn the honor. The award was named after legendary Cal and Olympic Club coach Pete Cutino beginning in 1999. Cupido is the 14th Cal player to earn the title of National Player of the Year, joining Peter Schnugg, Jon Svendsen, Kevin Robertson, Peter Cutino Jr., Alan Gresham, Jeff Brush, Kirk Everist, Chris Humbert, Chris Oeding, Dirk Zeien, Troy Barnhart, Mann and Rackov.

After starting for Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Cupido returned to Berkeley in 2017 and assumed the role of co-captain alongside fellow senior Pedro Stellet. What followed was just another example of how important Cupido has been for the Bears throughout four years at Cal as the multi-dimensional star impacted each game he played in a number of different ways.

A native of Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, Cupido led the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in scoring with 58 goals. He finished the year with 48 steals, 46 assists, 35 ejections earned and 19 field blocks while playing nearly every position in the pool. At the end of the year, he became Cal's first conference player of the year since Nick Kittredge in 1995 while also adding his fourth All-American and All-MPSF awards.

The way in which Cupido impacted the game was noticeable to every opponent Cal faced. After missing over two weeks due to illness, he returned to the pool for the MPSF Tournament and helped carry the Bears back to the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive year. An incredible individual performance in Cal's do-or-die third place match against Stanford will live forever in Cal history as he scored with 11 seconds left to force overtime and added an overtime goal that would be the eventual game-winner in the Bears' 10-9 victory.

Though he earned the Cutino Award for his efforts in 2017, Cupido's legacy at Cal goes far beyond his senior season. He helped the Bears win their 14th national title in 2016 by again showing his unmatched versatility. Playing extended minutes at 2-meter defender down the stretch, Cupido returned to his attacking ways when Cal needed him most and his swerving goal just before the end of the first overtime against USC played a big part in the Bears' 11-8 championship game victory.

Cupido's influence on Cal Athletics extended beyond the pool as well. One of the school's most accomplished student-athletes, he was awarded the Tom Hansen Medal by the Pac-12 Conference, an award given to each institution's top senior male athlete. A three-time MPSF All-Academic selection, Cupido was also named a 2017-18 All-Academic At-Large selection for the West region by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Amanda Longan - Cutino Award Winner - USCTrojans.com

Junior goalie Amanda Longan has become the seventh USC female to win collegiate water polo's highest honor — the Peter J. Cutino Award. In a ceremony tonight (June 2) at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Longan was listed alongside teammate Paige Hauschild and Stanford's Makenzie Fischer as finalists for what is considered the Heisman Trophy of water polo. As Longan's name was read as this year's winner, the junior adds her name to a star-studded list of USC names adorning the Cutino Award trophy.

Five of Longan's Cutino Award-winning Women of Troy predecessors are Olympians — Bernice Orwig (1998 winner), Aniko Pelle (2001), Moriah Van Norman (2004), Lauren Wenger (2006) and Kami Craig (2009 & 2010). The sixth honoree — Stephania Haralabidis — won it in 2016 when she and Longan were teammates on USC's national championship squad.

In all, the USC water polo program has now collected 14 Cutino Awards — eight on the women's side and six on the men's — all under the supervision of head coach Jovan Vavic.

Her elite company aside, Longan has made some history of her own in standing tall as the only female USC goalie to have been in the cage for two NCAA Championship victories (2016 & 2018). She is the second USC female goalie to win the Cutino Award, following in the footsteps of 2000 Olympian and 1999 winner Orwig. Orwig anchored her team to a national championship 20 years ago to make history with USC's first-ever women's title and in winning the inaugural Cutino Award in 1999.

This prestigious Peter J. Cutino Award and recent crowning as the ACWPC National Player of the Year reflect the relentless effort that Longan put forth on all counts in helping her Trojans in their run to the 2018 NCAA Championship. Also the MPSF Player of the Year and standing as USC's No. 3 all-time saves leader with 590 saves collected in three seasons of work as a Trojan, Longan ran her career count of double-digit save effort to 33 after making 10 stops in the 2018 national championship game. Named the NCAA Tournament MVP, she'd finish the season with 214 saves, averaging 11.03 per game and allowing just 5.24 goals-against per game to back up a stingy USC defense. Along the way, Longan set a new career high with 18 saves made in a win over Cal, marking the second most single-game saves made by a Trojan.

In her decorated 2018 campaign, Longan had 11 games with double-digit saves and became the first USC goalie ever to record two complete-game shutouts. With Longan's stellar work anchoring the USC defense throughout, the 2018 Trojans dropped just one game all year en route to capping the season with the 2018 NCAA Championship for a 26-1 final record.

Longan and freshman teammate Hauschild's Cutino finalist status — which made it 17 total for the USC women — also marked the fifth time in program history that USC has had two female finalists for the Cutino Award. On each previous occasion, a Trojan ended up winning the award. Previously, USC also doubled up on female finalists in 2006 (Lauren Wenger & Brittany Hayes), 2009 (Kami Craig & Michelle Stein), 2010 (Kami Craig & Tumua Anae) and 2016 (Stephania Haralabidis & Brigitta Games).

The award is given annually in honor of the late Peter J. Cutino, the former University of California Berkeley and The Olympic Club coach, who passed away in September 2004. Mr. Cutino is in the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame. He won "Water Polo Coach of the Year" 17 times. He led UC Berkeley to eight NCAA National Championships. In his career Mr. Cutino also coached in the Pan American Games, the Water Polo World Championships and the World University Games.

All-time Peter J. Cutino Award winners:
1998-99 - Bernice Orwig (USC)
1999-2000 - Sean Kern (UCLA) & Aniko Pelle (USC)
2000-01 - Sean Kern (UCLA) & Coralie Simmons (UCLA)
2001-02 - Tony Azevedo (Stanford) & Brenda Villa (Stanford)
2002-03 - Tony Azevedo (Stanford) & Jackie Frank (Stanford)
2003-04 - Tony Azevedo (Stanford) & Moriah Van Norman (USC)
2004-05 - Tony Azevedo (Stanford) & Natalie Golda (UCLA)
2005-06 - Juraj Zatovic (USC) & Lauren Wenger (USC)
2006-07 - John Mann (Cal) & Kelly Rulon (UCLA)
2007-08 - Tim Hutten (UC Irvine) & Courtney Mathewson (UCLA)
2008-09 - J.W. Krumpholz (USC) & Kami Craig (USC)
2009-10 - J.W. Krumpholz (USC) & Kami Craig (USC)
2010-11 - Ivan Rackov (California) & Annika Dries (Stanford)
2011-12 - Joel Dennerley (USC) & Kiley Neushel (Stanford)
2012-13 - Balazs Erdelyi (Pacific) & Melissa Seidemann (Stanford)
2013-14 - Balazs Erdelyi (Pacific) & Annika Dries (Stanford)
2014-15 - Kostas Genidounias (USC) & Kiley Neushel (Stanford)
2015-16 - Garrett Danner (UCLA) & Stephania Haralabidis (USC)
2016-17 - McQuin Baron (USC) & Ashleigh Johnson (Princeton)
2017-18 - Luca Cupido (Cal) & Amanda Longan (USC)