SAN FRANCISCO – Nearly six months after repeating both as a national champion and as the ACWPC Player of the Year, California men's water polo center Nikolaos Papanikolaou has been named the winner of the prestigious Peter J. Cutino Award – given annually to the top male and female player in NCAA water polo – for the second straight year.

While this is the fifth time the award has been won by a Cal player, Papanikolaou becomes the first Golden Bear to win it more than once. He is the sixth collegiate men's water polo player ever to repeat.

The four-time All-American received the award Saturday evening at the 24th annual Peter J. Cutino Awards Night Dinner at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Papanikolaou was one of the award's three finalists for the third straight year, taking home the honor over Pacific's Reuel D'Souza and USC's Jake Ehrhardt.

"The Olympic Club has done an amazing job organizing this event. I'm so glad to be a part of it. I feel so happy and so honored to get this award a second consecutive year," Papanikolaou said to begin his acceptance speech.

With his entire coaching staff in attendance, as well as his close teammate and friend Jack Deely, Papanikolaou expressed gratitude to his team for the "incredible journey" they've been on over the past several years. However, he made it clear that this award was being dedicated to one person: his father.

"When I was nine years old, my dad came up to me and said, 'I think I found a sport more suitable for you,'" Papanikolaou said. "I had never heard of water polo before, but I went for it. For the next eight years, he would drive me and my brother to practice every day, spend four or five hours waiting for us to finish and drive us back home. I'm so grateful and I love and appreciate him because there is a zero percent chance I'd be playing water polo, let alone be here with you today if it wasn't for him."

Papanikolaou puts yet another highlight on what is already one of the greatest resumes in program history. With 62 goals, an MPSF-leading 80 earned exclusions and top-10 national ranks in steals and field blocks, he completed a run of three straight years being named the MPSF Player of the Year, making the ACWPC All-America First Team and leading Cal to a regular-season conference title. He capped off his junior campaign with seven goals in the Bears' epic 13-12 comeback win in the national championship game.

In 2022, Papanikolaou joined John Mann (2006), Ivan Rackov (2010) and Luca Cupido (2017) as the only Bears to win college water polo's highest individual honor. The award was named after legendary Golden Bears head coach Pete Cutino, who led Cal to eight national titles during a 26-year career. Cutino is the program's all-time winningest coach with 519 victories.

The Athens, Greece native punctuated his heartwarming and laugh-filled speech by letting everyone know that his second Cutino Award win happened to be coinciding with his father's birthday.

"I never know what to get him," Papanikolaou said before raising his new trophy. "So, happy birthday, dad."


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