Steele Johnson Wins NCAA Championship

Yes, we’re paying attention to basketball tonight, but when a Purdue athlete wins an NCAA championship it is worth the breaking news banner. The NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships are going on right now, so of course that means Purdue has another National Champion.

Steele Johnson almost was a two-time champion, as he finished as the runner-up yesterday in the 1-meter event to Indiana’s Michael Hixon, but today he was able to add the 5th individual National Championship of his illustrious career 3-meter event. This is in conjunction with his 1-meter championships in 2015 and 2017, his 3-meter championship in 2017, and his 10-meter platform champonship in 2015. Officially he did not compete in 2016 as he was too busy training for the Rio Olympics and winning a bronze medal.

With a win in the 10-meter event tomorrow (or a championship as a senior next year in any discipline) he can tie David Boudia for the most NCAA diving championships ever.

Of course, Boudia is also a Boilermaker, and we are a diving school.