UCLA men’s water polo goalie earns prestigious Cutino Award
Rising senior goalkeeper Garrett Danner won the Peter J. Cutino Award for collegiate water polo player of the year. The rising senior is the all-times saves leader at UCLA. (Courtesy of the Danner Family/UCLA Athletics)
By TuAnh Dam
June 6, 2016 12:45 p.m.
UCLA men’s water polo goalkeeper Garrett Danner was named the 2015 Peter J. Cutino Award recipient for the men’s sport, the Olympic Club of San Francisco announced Saturday evening.
Given to the top male and female water polo players in the country, the Cutino Award is the water polo equivalent of football’s Heisman Trophy.
Danner, who will be a senior in the fall, is the first Bruin athlete to win the prestigious award since Courtney Mathewson won the women’s honor in 2008 and just the second recipient from the men’s program. Former four-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion Sean Kern previously won the award in 2001 and 2002.
The rising senior dominated in the cage, holding opponents to 163 goals over 30 games, setting UCLA’s single-season saves record with 278 saves.
In the 2015 NCAA championship game against USC, the Trojan offense outshot the Bruins 32 to 30. But Danner’s defense limited USC, who went two-for-eight on power plays, to just seven goals. UCLA went on to claim its second championship in two years and finished the season 30-0.
The first-team All-American and 2015 Division I Player of the Year finished his junior season with 773 saves, good for ninth all time in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and first at UCLA in career saves.
With one more season in Westwood, Danner will be one of the driving forces in the Bruin’s quest for a third consecutive national championship.
Email Dam at tdam@dailybruin.com or tweet @tueydam.
