WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Two NCAA diving titles for Steele Johnson and Lyam Dias claiming the program's first Big Ten title in a swimming event since 2009 highlighted the 2014-15 season for Purdue men's swimming and diving.
Johnson and Dias were among the four the Boilermakers to score at the national championship meet as Purdue finished in 17th place in the team scoring with 75 points. It was the program's top showing since 2011.
Johnson was named the CSCAA and Big Ten Diver of the Year after winning NCAA titles on 1-meter and platform as a freshman. He joined alumni David Boudia (six NCAA titles from 2009-11) and Casey Matthews (women's 3-meter champ in 2013) as Purdue divers to win NCAA titles. All nine national championships have come under the tutelage of head diving coach Adam Soldati, who was named the CSCAA and Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year. He won the CSCAA award for the fourth time and the Big Ten honor for the fifth time for his work with the Purdue men and seventh time overall (men and women).
Johnson became the first diver since Boudia in 2009 to win NCAA titles on both a springboard and the platform in the same year.
Sean Mokhtari and Jamie Bissett also earned All-America accolades by qualifying for the championship final of platform diving and finishing among the top eight nationally. It marked the second time in five years that the Boilers had three of the eight qualifiers for the championship final of platform diving at the NCAA Championships.
Ten Boilermakers competed at the national championship meet. Guillermo Blanco, Bissett, Dias and Johnson all qualified for three individual events. Bissett and Dias both made it for the third year in a row. Marat Amaltdinov became Purdue's first freshman swimmer to qualify via an individual event since 2006.
Dias earned Honorable Mention All-America acclaim by qualifying for the consolation final of the 200 breaststroke for the second year in a row, eclipsing his own program record in the preliminaries at NCAAs.
A month earlier at the Big Ten Championships, Dias' victory in the 200 breaststroke highlighted a thrilling final day in which the Boilers held off Wisconsin and Minnesota to finish fourth in the team scoring. The fourth-place showing matched the best in program history, a spot Purdue also finished in 1988, 1997, 2009 and 2010 during Dan Ross's tenure as head coach (1985-86 to present). The Boilermakers were unranked entering Big Tens but still managed to outscore four Top 25 teams.
Johnson finished as the runner-up in all three diving events at the Big Ten Championships, leading the way with 51 team points, the most by a Boilermaker since Boudia in 2011. Dias was named First Team All-Big Ten and Johnson was a Second Team honoree. Blanco (44 points), Bissett (39), Cox (30) and Mokhtari (18) joined Johnson as Purdue athletes to score in three individual events. The Boilers had five of the Top 10 finishers in platform diving.
Seven new program records were established this year. Blanco eclipsed the Purdue benchmark in the 200 IM and was part of new records in the 200 medley and 800 free relays. Stephen Seliskar (200 back) and Dias (200 breast) also posted a new individual record and were part of the 200 medley relay team. Amaltdinov (200 breast) and Johnson (1-meter diving) eclipsed team freshman records.
Johnson and Bissett won titles at their countries' winter national meets. Johnson won on 10-meter to defend his title at the USA Diving Winter Nationals in December. He finished the meet as the top individual scorer for the weekend. In February, Bissett was victorious on 3-meter and the runner-up on 1-meter at the Diving Canada Winter Nationals in Toronto.
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.
NCAA CHAMPION
Steele Johnson - 1-Meter Diving & Platform Diving
NATIONAL & BIG TEN INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Steele Johnson - CSCAA & Big Ten Diver of the Year
Adam Soldati - CSCAA & Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year
ALL-AMERICA
Steele Johnson - 1-Meter Diving & Platform Diving
Sean Mokhtari - Platform Diving
Jamie Bissett - Platform Diving
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-AMERICA
Lyam Dias - 200 Breaststroke
Steele Johnson - 3-Meter Diving
ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA
Jamie Bissett - First Team
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIERS
Lyam Dias - 100 & 200 Breaststroke, 200 IM & 200 Medley Relay
Guillermo Blanco - 200 & 400 IM, 200 Butterfly
Jamie Bissett - 1-Meter, 3-Meter & Platform Diving
Steele Johnson - 1-Meter, 3-Meter & Platform Diving
Marat Amaltdinov - 100 & 200 Breaststroke
Nate Cox - Platform Diving
Sean Mokhtari - Platform Diving
Stephen Seliskar - 200 Medley Relay
Austin Flager - 200 Medley Relay
Adam Johnston - 200 Medley Relay
BIG TEN CHAMPION
Lyam Dias - 200 Breaststroke
USA DIVING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Steele Johnson - 10-Meter at Winter Nationals & 10-Meter Synchro (with David Boudia) at Synchro Nationals
DIVING CANANDA NATIONAL CHAMPION
Jamie Bissett - 3-Meter at Winter Nationals
FIRST TEAM ALL-BIG TEN
Lyam Dias
SECOND TEAM ALL-BIG TEN
Steele Johnson
NEW PROGRAM RECORDS
Stephen Seliskar - 100 Backstroke (47.42)
Lyam Dias - 200 Breaststroke (1:52.97)
Guillermo Blanco - 200 IM (1:43.87)
200 Medley Relay Team - Seliskar, Dias, Blanco & Flager (1:26.57)
800 Free Free Relay Team - Blanco, Petric, Ehrman & Brooks (6:27.10)
NEW PURDUE FRESHMAN RECORDS
Marat Amaltdinov - 200 Breaststroke (1:54.33)
Steele Johnson - 1-Meter Diving (468.15)
BIG TEN MEDAL OF HONOR
Jamie Bissett (Male Honoree for all of Purdue Athletics)
NCAA POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP
Jamie Bissett
BIG TEN POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP
Manuel Gutierrez (Male Honoree for all of Purdue Athletics)
ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT 5
Jamie Bissett
BIG TEN WEEKLY AWARDS
Steele Johnson - Six-Time Big Ten Diver of the Week (Oct. 21, Nov. 11, Nov. 25, Jan. 13, Jan. 27 & Feb. 3) & Six-Time Big Ten Freshman of the Week (Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Dec. 23, Jan. 13, Jan. 27 & Feb. 3)
TEAM AWARDS
Most Valuable - Steele Johnson
Most Improved - Adam Noens
Red Mackey Nominee (Excellence by a Senior) - Jan Karel Petric
R.O. Papenguth (Sportsmanship) - Jan Karel Petric
GOLDEN PETE AWARDS
Male Performance of the Year - Steele Johnson
Individual Performance, Single Event - Steele Johnson
Coach of the Year - Adam Soldati
PURDUE DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARDS
Jamie Bissett
Manuel Gutierrez
BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS (3.7+ GPA)
Evan Barta
Jamie Bissett
Josh Brooks
Ted Curtiss
Manuel Gutierrez
Bo Ilgenfritz
Sean Mokhtari
Jan Karel Petric
Alex Toetz
CSCAA SCHOLAR ALL-AMERICANS (3.5+ GPA)
Marat Amaltdinov
Jamie Bissett
Sean Mokhtari
CSCAA HONORABLE MENTION SCHOLAR ALL-AMERICANS (3.5+ GPA)
Josh Brooks
Jan Karel Petric
ACADEMIC ALL-BIG TEN (3.0+ GPA)
Evan Barta
Jamie Bissett
Josh Brooks
Danny Conway
Ted Curtiss
Manuel Gutierrez
Bo Ilgenfritz
James Nguyen
Jan Karel Petric
Matt Quinlan
Jim Riegger
Jes Stephens
Alex Toetz
Purdue's Individual Scoring Recap at the Big Ten Championships
Team Points Earned by Championship (A) & Consolation (B) Finals Qualifiers
1.) Steele Johnson - 51 Points
1-Meter Diving - Finished 2nd in A Final (17 Points)
3-Meter Diving - Finished 2nd in A Final (17 Points)
Platform Diving - Finished 2nd in A Final (17 Points)
2.) Guillermo Blanco - 44 Points
200 IM - Finished 3rd in A Final (16 Points)
400 IM - Finished 4th in A Final (15 Points)
200 Fly - Finished 6th in A Final (13 Points)
3.) Jamie Bissett - 39 Points
3-Meter Diving - Finished 5th in A Final (14 Points)
Platform Diving - Finished 5th in A Final (14 Points)
1-Meter Diving - Finished 8th in A Final (11 Points)
4.) Lyam Dias - 35 Points
200 Breast - Big Ten Champion/Won A Final (20 Points)
100 Breast - Finished 4th in A Final (15 Points)
5.) Nate Cox - 30 Points
Platform Diving - Finished 3rd in A Final (16 Points)
1-Meter Diving - Won B Final (9 Points)
3-Meter Diving - Finished 4th in B Final (5 Points)
6.) Danny Conway - 23 Points
200 Fly - Finished 5th in A Final (14 Points)
400 IM - Won B Final (9 Points)
7.) Sean Mokhtari - 18 Points
Platform Diving - Finished 8th in A Final (11 Points)
1-Meter Diving - Finished 5th in B Final (4 Points)
3-Meter Diving - Finished 6th in B Final (3 Points)
8.) Marat Amaltdinov - 17 Points
200 Breast - Finished 3rd in A Final (16 Points)
100 Breast - Finished 8th in B Final (1 Point)
9.) Alec Back - 14 Points
1-Meter Diving - Finished 2nd in B Final (7 Points)
Platform Diving - Finished 2nd in B Final (7 Points)
10.) Austin Flager - 7 Points
100 Fly - Finished 5th in B Final (4 Points)
100 Free - Finished 6th in B Final (3 Points)
11.) Jan Karel Petric - 4 Points
400 IM - Finished 5th in B Final (4 Points)
12.) Adam Johnston - 2.5 Points
50 Free - Finished T-6th in B Final (2.5 Points)
13.) Stephen Seliskar - 2 Points
100 Fly - Finished 7th in B Final (2 Points)
14.) Adam Noens - 1 Point
400 IM - Finished 8th in B Final (1 Point)
Top Scoring Events
Platform Diving - 65 Points (5 of Top 10 Finishers)
1-Meter Diving - 48 Points (5 of Top 13 Finishers)
3-Meter Diving - 39 Points (4 of Top 14 Finishers)
200 Breast - 36 Points (2 of Top 3 Finishers)
400 IM - 29 Points (4 Scored)
200 Fly - 27 Points (2 of Top 6 Finishers)