USC’s Jake Ehrhardt Earns First Selection As Cutino Award Finalist

Courtesy: USC Athletics

SAN FRANCISCO — USC’s Jake Ehrhardt is in line for the nation’s highest collegiate water polo honor, named a men’s finalist for the Peter J. Cutino Award as announced May 8 by The Olympic Club. A five-time All-American, Ehrhardt’s Cutino finalist status marks the 16th such selection for a USC men’s player.

In his fifth season of work with the Trojans, Jake Ehrhardt hauled in a fifth set of All-America honors with spot on the 2022 All-America First Team. The captain wrapped his USC career as the Trojans’ No. 6 all-time leading scorer with 179 career goals after serving up 55 for the Trojans in 2022. In USC’s 2022 season, Ehrhardt was USC’s second leading scorer and led the Trojans with 19 multiple-goal outings, including a career-high five goals in a key MPSF win over Stanford. With Ehrhardt’s steady leadership, defensive savvy and offensive prowess, the Trojans won the 2022 MPSF Tournament championship to secure the program’s 18th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. There, USC made a power move past rival UCLA in the semifinals to face top-seeded host California in the final, falling in that title match to finish the year at 20-7 overall.

On the men’s side in Cutino Award history, Ehrhardt’s selection marks the 16th time a Trojan has been named a finalist for the Cutino Award, following 2022 selection Nic Porter and 2021 finalist Jacob Mercep. Prior to that, USC had two finalists in 2016— Blake Edwards and McQuin Baron. Baron won the Cutino Award that year, claiming the sixth trophy for USC ‘s men. In all, USC’s past male Cutino Award winners are: Juraj Zatovic (2005), J.W. Krumpholz (2008 & 2009), Joel Dennerley (2011), Kostas Genidounias (2014) and McQuin Baron (2016).

Ehrhardt is joined by California’s Nikolaos Papanikolaou and Pacific’s Reuel D’Souza as the men’s finalist for this 2022-23 Cutino Award. The women’s finalists will be announced following the conclusion of the women’s season.

Established in 1999, 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, Cutino also coached in the Pan American Games, the Water Polo World Championships and the World University Games.

The Cutino Awards will take place on the evening of Saturday, June 3rd at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The ceremony will be live-streamed free of charge courtesy of USA Water Polo at YouTube.com/USAWP. The broadcast will feature interviews with finalists, athletes, coaches plus the Cutino Award ceremony in its entirety. Those interested in attending the awards can register by visiting https://www.olyclub.com/cutino-awards-rsvp/.

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)
2018-19 – Ben Hallock (Stanford) & Makenzie Fischer (Stanford)
2019-20 – Ben Hallock (Stanford)
2020-21 – Nicolas Saveljic (UCLA) & Maud Megens (USC)
2021-22 – Nikolaos Papanikolaou (Cal) & Makenzie Fischer (Stanford)