Award Season Astonishment

Originally posted on "On The Deck" blog.

Throughout the past week, multiple Awards have made their way to the forefront from individual schools, conferences, All-American, and the grand award itself, the Peter J. Cutino Award.

However, there have also been a fair share of eyebrow raises across the board with some of the highest honors water polo players can receive. Some of these have included the denial of All-American Awards to All-Confernence and All-Tournament finishes at the Division III level in favor of players with no recognition throughout the season; Offensive players being named for awards over more skilled defensive field players based on statistics; Even the Peter J. Cutino Award, the most prestigious award in all of college water polo, had a shocking turn.

Many water polo faithful were certain that because Maggie Steffens had an amazing game winning goal for Stanford in the NCAA women’s water polo championship, that she would be the definitive recipient of the award. The other two nominees were her 2016 Rio Olympic teammates Rachel Fattal of UCLA, and Ashleigh Johnson of Princeton.

Instead, the winner was Johnson, the resort senior goalie for Princeton who finished her career with a 112-17 career record for the Tigers, a 22-4 record as a senior. After having a gold medal summer in Rio with Team USA, Johnson returned to Princeton as their major defensive tour de force. She was also the only nominee of the three women to have not had her team compete at the NCAA championship tournament.

This has by far been a shocking moment for many, however there has been nothing but support coming from her Olympic teammates and other major water polo figures. Johnson has had a stellar career and has made strides for water polo. It is also a marquee year in that Johnson and McQuin Baron of USC are the first year for the Cutino Award winners to be goalies. Baron also competed for Team USA in Rio and has one more year of eligibility and to push the Trojans to becoming the bride of the NCAA championships by winning a national title.

That’s all for this week. For those who are interested in seeing the whole list of All-American selections, you ca check out the links here!

Division I: http://collegiatewaterpolo.org/varsity/news/2016-17/2017ACWPCWomenAllAmericaDivisionI.pdf

Division II: http://collegiatewaterpolo.org/varsity/news/2016-17/2017ACWPCWomenAllAmericaD2.pdf

Division III: http://collegiatewaterpolo.org/varsity/news/2016-17/2017ACWPCWomenAllAmericaD3.pdf

I hope you check back here next week for the next post featuring the results of the World League Super Final!

Until next time, I’ll see you On the Deck.