ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Personal season-best scores on 1- and 3-meter, including the second-highest score in program history on 3-meter, have earned Purdue men's swimming and diving's Steele Johnson his second Big Ten Diver of the Week honor of the young season.
Johnson earned a list score of 461.33 in his 3-meter diving victory Friday in the dual meet win against Western Kentucky. He's now only second to two-time Olympian and six-time NCAA champion David Boudia (522.00 from 2011) in program history. Boudia's freshman record of 495.30 from 2009 would be the next benchmark for Johnson to pursue this season.
Johnson averaged a score of 76.9 per dive in his 3-meter victory, scoring no fewer than 72 on any of the six. His reverse 1 ½ somersault 3 ½ twist free, which carries a 3.5 degree of difficulty, earned him a list-high score of 91.88 on his fifth dive.
Johnson's list score of 374.33 while finishing as the runner-up to teammate Jamie Bissett on 1-meter was good for seventh in program history. The freshman has competed on 1-meter the last two weekends after initially focusing on 3-meter over the first few weeks of his freshman season. However, Johnson's specialty remains platform diving and will compete in that event for the first time at the college level Sunday, Nov. 23, at the Ohio State Invitational.
Bissett's victorious 1-meter score of 380.40 was less than a point shy of his career best mark from 2014. He also finished second to Johnson on 3-meter as the only other diver to earn a 400-plus score.
Johnson's classmate on the swimming side of the roster, Russian Marat Amaltdinov, also added his named to the Purdue all-time Top 10 list twice Friday in his official collegiate debut. The breaststroke specialist posted the seventh-fastest time in program history while winning the 200 (1:59.20) and the 10th best while finishing as the runner-up in the 100 (55.81).
A Purdue diver has been recognized by the conference office each of the last four weeks. Mary Beth Dunnichay and Johnson have each been named Diver of the Week twice and Johnson was also the Big Ten co-Freshman of the Oct. 28 after his 3-meter win at the triple dual with Cincinnati and Ohio State.
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