Three Trojans Chosen to Cutino Award Watch List

USC males’s water polo is properly represented on the 2025 Peter J. Cutino Award Watch List, with a trio of Trojans chosen as potential candidates for collegiate water polo’s highest honor. This is the primary decide to the Watch List for USC goalie Bernardo Herzer, the third for Robert López Duart and the second for Mihailo Vukazić, who was a Cutino Award finalist final season whereas taking part in at Pacific.

The Peter J. Cutino Award, named in honor of the late Hall of Fame coach, acknowledges the perfect participant in males’s and girls’s faculty water polo. This watch listing was created in 2022 in an effort to assist promote the collegiate sport, consciousness of the award and the large play of athletes throughout the nation. Twenty athletes, as submitted by varsity faculty coaches across the nation, are acknowledged for his or her excellent play. While it is doable the 2026 Cutino Award winner will come from the listing of athletes under, the watch listing is fully unbiased from the nomination and voting course of for the Cutino Award as that honor will acknowledge the total affect of the 2025 season. A ladies’s Cutino Award Watch List will likely be shared in Spring 2026. 

Now in his third season of motion as a Trojan, goalie Bernardo Herzer is a two-time All-American who gained worldwide expertise as a member of the U.S. National Team this previous summer time. He has risen to No. 11 all-time on the USC profession saves chart with 437 saves — simply 4 shy of cracking the highest 10 amongst USC goalies. This yr, Herzer is averaging 11.6 saves per sport in seven appearances for the 10-1 Trojans.That consists of back-to-back double-digit saves efforts earlier this month when he pinned up 15 vs. Pepperdine and 11 vs. UC Irvine.

As he digs into his second season as a Trojan, Robert López Duart is now a three-time member of the Cutino Award Watch List. He was first named to the listing as a freshman at Long Beach State earlier than becoming a member of USC final season. Now, López Duart is a two-time All-American after incomes First Team standing final season. Once once more, he is USC’s high scorer, at the moment with 31 objectives to his title this season. That offers him 95 objectives as a Trojan, placing him getting ready to breaking the 100-goal mark at USC.

A Cutino Award finalist final yr at Pacific, Mihailo Vukazić is making his mark as a grad switch at USC. Also a First Team All-American final season, he has scored in all 11 video games this yr for the Trojans, with 25 objectives tallied so far. Just just lately, Vukazić secured a spot within the USC historical past books together with his eight-goal outburst, marking the second most objectives scored in a single sport by a Trojan.

USC males’s water polo has reached 20 straight NCAA Tournaments and are at the moment ranked No. 3 within the nation with a 10-1 total file. The Trojans head out of city this week for 2 nonconference video games. USC visits No. 10 Pacific for a 7 p.m. conflict on Friday (Sept. 26) in Stockton after which has a 12 p.m. assembly at No. 8 UC Davis on Sunday (Sept. 28).