Mann receives top award in men’s water polo

UC Berkeley senior standout John Mann, a Corona del Mar High product who helped lead the Golden Bears to the 2006 national title, was named the winner of the 2006-07 Peter J. Cutino Award as the nation’s top male collegiate water polo player, it was announced Saturday night at the annual awards dinner held at The Olympic Club’s City Clubhouse in San Francisco.

Mann was selected over the two other finalists, Juan Delgadillo from USC and Ty Lackey from UC San Diego. Mann is the first Cal athlete to be nominated for the Cutino Award since Attila Banhidy was an award finalist in 2003-04, and he is the first Bear to capture the honor named after the former Cal water polo coaching legend, Peter Cutino.

“It is a great honor to win the Peter Cutino Award,” Mann said in a press release. “I have always felt that it belongs to a player with the University of California and I’m honored to be the first Golden Bear to win this prestigious award.”

One of the top players in school history, Mann led the Bears (31-4) to both the NCAA and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation titles this past fall, Cal’s NCAA-record 12th national crown. He was earlier picked first-team All-America for the third year in a row, first-team NCAA All-Tournament, MPSF Tournament MVP, All-MPSF first team and Cal’s Pac-10 Medalist.

During the 2006 season, Mann was the Bears’ leading scorer with 80 goals in 33 matches and was instrumental in Cal’s 6-5 win over USC in the MPSF Tournament final, and 7-6 victory over the Trojans in the NCAA title match. He finished his college career with 218 goals. A member of the USA National Team, Mann is a candidate to represent the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Kelly Rulon from UCLA was this year’s winner of the Cutino Award for women.

— From staff reports