Saturday Results: Prelims | Finals | Complete 3-Day | Dive-by-Dive Scoring
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Steele Johnson won the 10-meter platform diving NCAA title for his second national championship of the meet, leading the way as Purdue men's swimming and diving finished 17th in the team scoring at the NCAA Championships Saturday evening.
After also winning the 1-meter diving NCAA title Thursday, Johnson was named the CSCAA Diver of the Year. He became the first diver to win national titles on both a springboard event and the platforms in the same year since alumnus David Boudia in 2009.
Purdue head diving coach Adam Soldati was named the CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year for the fourth time. The Boilermakers have now won nine NCAA diving titles under his tutelage.
Purdue had three divers -- Jamie Bissett, Sean Mokhtari and Johnson -- qualify for the championship final of the platform competition for the second time in five years, also accomplishing the feat in 2011. The Boilermakers' 75 team points and 17th-place finish at the national championship meet this year were their best since 2011 (88 points, 16th).
Lyam Dias broke the program record in the 200 breaststroke for the second time in his career while qualifying for the consolation final at NCAAs for the second year in a row. He was 12th in the prelims with a time of 1:52.97, becoming the first Boilermaker to finish the 200 breast with a sub-1:53 mark. The senior finished sixth in the consolation final to account for three team points and earn Honorable Mention All-America accolades for the second year in a row. He's the first Purdue swimmer to be an All-American in an individual event in consecutive seasons since Giordan Pogioli in 2005-06.
Purdue Men's swimming and diving 2015 NCAA 17th place team! Good job boys! pic.twitter.com/6jIoWBD8mV
-- Dan Ross (@CoachDanRoss) March 29, 2015
Johnson was also first in the platform prelims Saturday, finishing the weekend having won four of the six rounds of event competition in which he participated. Friday, the freshman won the consolation final of 3-meter diving. He was one of five student-athletes to earn All-America honors in all three diving events at NCAAs this year. He improved on his second-best platform score (532.70) in program history in the finals and finished less than one point off of Boudia's Purdue freshman record (533.60)
"Yesterday I didn't make the final in the 3-meter, which is typically one of my better events; I missed it by a couple points," Johnson said. "On the 1-meter event, my coach held up my shammy towel and told me I was going into the competition holding too tightly onto everything, you are thinking you need to do the best on every dive to win. In reality, it is not about winning. You need to hold the competition with an open hand and not stress and freak out about it. If you stress and freak out about it nothing good is going to come from it. You are going to learn from your mistakes.
"I guess it translated into today's performance because I was upset about yesterday's competition, I wasn't happy with how I dove. Then I went into the consolation finals and almost broke my PR. He knows how to help me switch my mindset. Today after the prelims I was jacked up, hyped up, and thought I could win another NCAA title, and he told me that it doesn't matter because life goes on whether I win or lose. With each dive, I would walk over and he would remind me to stay calm and helped me not focus on winning, but focus on diving for 10s and diving the best I could."
Mokhtari and Bissett capped their Purdue careers with All-American honors. Mokhtari was seventh in the championship final and Bissett eighth. They both closed their lists with their top-scoring dives of the finals. Bissett earned his third career All-America honor, but it was his first full-fledged award after being Honorable Mention the last two seasons. Mokhtari was an All-American for the first time.
Nate Cox finished 17th in the prelims of platform diving, coming up one spot shy of qualifying for the consolation final for the second year in a row. However, Purdue still had four of the top 17 finishers on the platforms. Minnesota (two) was the only other team with more than one diver among the top 17.
Unfortunately, it was the third 17th-place finish in the prelims for Purdue this weekend. One spot higher in those three events -- 1-meter diving, 100 breast and platform diving -- and the Boilers would have had three more scoring finishes and All-America awards to add to their successful showing at the meet.
Johnson earned all perfect 10s on his fifth dive of the finals, a reverse 3 ½ somersault tuck (307C). It allowed him to hold off Indiana's James Connor, who Johnson finished second to on both 3-meter and platform at the Big Ten Championships last month. Johnson sealed the national title with three 10s on his final dive, a back 2 ½ somersault 1 ½ twist pike (5253B). He got at least one 10 on four of his six dives in the finals.
Bissett also earned one perfect 10 on his final dive of the finals Saturday.
Marat Amaltdinov and Guillermo Blanco also competed for Purdue Saturday in swimming events. Amaltdinov was 29th in the prelims of the 200 breast and Blanco finished 39th in the prelims of the 200 butterfly.
The Boilermakers will have to bid adieu to an accomplished eight-member senior class, which included Blanco, Bissett, Cox, Dias and Mokhtari, but are scheduled to return five of their 10 NCAA Championships qualifiers for the 2015-16 season.
Purdue Entries on Day Three of NCAA Championships
+ -- New Purdue Record Time
* -- New Purdue Season-Best Score
Platform Diving
Steele Johnson, 532.70* - Event Winner (20 Points); NCAA CHAMPION & ALL-AMERICAN
Sean Mokhtari, 397.65 (Prelim Score) - Finished 7th in Championship Final (12 Points); ALL-AMERICAN
Jamie Bissett, 396.10 (Prelim Score) - Finished 8th in Championship Final (11 Points); ALL-AMERICAN
Nate Cox, 358.55 - Finished 17th in Prelims
200 Breast
Lyam Dias, 1:52.97+ (Prelim Time) - Finished 6th in Consolation Final, 14th Overall (3 Points); Honorable Mention All-American
Marat Amaltdinov, 1:55.09 - Finished 29th in Prelims
200 Fly
Guillermo Blanco, 1:46.20 - Finished 39th in Prelims
NCAA CHAMP ON PLATFORM!! Thanks for all of the love and support :) #GloryToGod #Ao1 #BoilerUp
-- Steele Johnson (@Steele_Johnson) March 29, 2015
.@Steele_Johnson w/his NCAA championship trophy on podium at NCAAs moments ago. Thanks to Iowa's James Allan for pics pic.twitter.com/FCOXup0sLS
-- Purdue Swim-Dive (@PurdueMSwimDive) March 29, 2015
YES #boilerup @purduemswimdive pic.twitter.com/UnRJs1A08a
-- Ben Wachtel (@benwachtel24) March 29, 2015
2015 Diver of Year! Steele Johnson! pic.twitter.com/AgTnWojwlY
-- Dan Ross (@CoachDanRoss) March 29, 2015