Trojans Sweep Peter J. Cutino Awards
June 04, 2006 | Men's Water Polo
June 3, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. -- USC seniors Juraj Zatovic and Lauren Wenger have added collegiate water polo's highest honor to their list of accomplishments as Trojans, winning the 2005-06 Peter J. Cutino Award as the top male and female water polo players of the year. Zatovic is the first USC male athlete to win the award and just the third male winner in the award's seven-year history. Both are the first defenders to win the award, and this also is the first time that the Trojans have swept the honor. Stanford is the only other school to claim both the male and female awards in the same year. The award was presented on Saturday, June 3 at the Olympic Club of San Francisco.
Zatovic, a 2-meter defender, was also a finalist in 2004. He has been USC's leading scorer every season for the past four years, and took over as USC's all-time leading career scorer with 220 career goals. With 68 goals as a senior, Zatovic helped lead the Trojans on a 19-game winning streak en route to an all-time best 26-1 overall record and the Trojans' second NCAA championship.
During the 2005 national championship season, Zatovic also was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Year and the American Water Polo Coaches Association Player of the Year. After USC's NCAA title, Zatovic was named Co-MVP of the NCAA Tournament.
Zatovic is graduating from USC with a degree in international relations. He also is a member of the Slovakian National Team and was a 2000 Olympian.
The other male finalists for the award were UC Irvine's Dreason Barry, Stanford's Thomas Hopkins and Pepperdine's Jesse Smith.
A member of the U.S. National Team, Wenger (Long Beach, Calif./Wilson HS) was a powerful contributor on both ends of the pool once again for the Women of Troy. In addition to leading USC in steals and assists, Wenger punched in 37 goals this year to move up as the Trojans' No. 8 all-time scorer with 127 career goals. She scored five of those at the 2006 NCAA Tournament, where USC ended up falling in the last second to UCLA in the NCAA Championship game to finish the year 27-3 overall.
En route to the Cutino Award, Wenger also was selected to the All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation First Team as well as the NCAA All-Tournament First Team. This was Wenger's first-ever honor as a Cutino Award finalist.
Wenger was joined as a Cutino Award finalist by junior USC teammate Brittany Hayes and Stanford goalie Meridith McColl.
The award is named after Peter J. Cutino, one of the country's most storied and revered coaches, who passed away in 2004. During 26 years as head coach at Cal Berkeley, Cutino guided his teams to eight NCAA titles and a record of 519-172-10, a winning percentage of .740. He was a four-time Pac-10 and NCAA coach of the year (1974-75, 1983, 1988), coaching 68 All-Americans and five Olympians in that time. The award sponsor, the Olympic Club, was founded in San Francisco in 1860 by 23 members.
USC's Peter J. Cutino Award Winners
WOMEN
1999 - Bernice Orwig
2000 - Aniko Pelle
2004 - Moriah Van Norman
2006 - Lauren Wenger
MEN
2005 - Juraj Zatovic
