Nikolaos Papanikolaou & Isabel Williams Sweep Cutino Awards

Nikolaos Papanikolaou and Isabel Williams each won the Peter J. Cutino Award as Cal swept honors given to the nation’s top men’s and women’s collegiate water polo players during ceremonies at the Olympic Club in San Francisco on Saturday night.

It was the first time Cal athletes won both the men’s and women’s Cutino awards the same season, the sixth time athletes from any school have swept the award.

The award is named for the late, legendary Cal men’s coach, who led the Bears to eight NCAA men’s during an unparalleled career.

Papanikolaou, who the Golden Bears to their third straight NCAA championship last fall, won the award for a third straight season, joining former Stanford grad Tony Azevedo (2001-04) as just the second player to do so.

A native of Athens, Greece, Papanikolaou scored 43 goals in 2023 to finish with a career total of 253, second-most in program history. He also led the nation in exclusions drawn with 95, meaning 95 players earned penalty time for fouls committed while attempting to stop him.

The only Cal player to win the Cutino award more than once, the 6-foot-3, 242-pound senior also claimed the past three ACWPC Player of the Year honors after helping the Bears to a 13-11 triumph over UCLA in the NCAA title game.

After leading the Bears to a combined record of 69-11 the past three seasons, Papanikolaou signed to play professionally in his home country with Panathinaikos. He currently is training with the Greek national team in preparation for the Paris Olympics this summer.

Williams, a fifth-year goalkeeper from Saverna Park, MD, set Cal’s single-season saves record with 326, leading the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with 12.5 per game and a .653 save percentage.

The helped the Bears to a 19-7 record while starting every game. Williams was named to the All-America team and won All-MPSF honors for the third straight season.

She is the first Cal woman to win the Cutino award, just the second to be a finalist.

"It's an honor to be considered among such a great legacy of those who've won this award in the past," Williams. "Thank you to the Cutino family, the Olympic Club, and USA Water Polo. I'm so grateful to be here and so honored to receive this award.”