Purdue Athlete of the Year History
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - As multiple-time All-Americans and recipients of the top individual Big Ten awards in their sports, Steele Johnson of swimming & diving and Brionna Thomas of track & field have been selected as Purdue's Athletes of the Year for the 2017-18 school year. They were chosen by a vote of athletics department administrators from a pool of candidates made up of each sport's Most Valuable Player or similar designee.
Johnson and Thomas now will represent the Boilermakers in the voting for the Big Ten Conference Athlete of the Year awards. The Big Ten awards will be voted on by a panel of conference media and announced by the conference office June 27. Track & field's Dani Bunch was Purdue's last winner of the Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year award in 2014. Diver David Boudia was the Boilermakers' last Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year winner in 2011.
Johnson was recognized as the Big Ten Diver of the Year for the third time in his career. Thomas was honored as the Big Ten Athlete of the Year during the indoor track & field season. She earned multiple All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor seasons as a senior this year.
Johnson was the NCAA champion in 3-meter diving for the second year in a row, winning his fifth career national title. Thomas finished in the top five of the 400-meter dash at both the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships.
Thomas and Johnson were both Big Ten champions this year. Thomas helped the Purdue women sweep the 4x400-meter relays at both the Indoor and Outdoor Big Ten Championships. She was also the conference champion in the 400-meter dash outdoors. Johnson repeated as the Big Ten champion on 3-meter.
These were a couple of the top championship-clinching moments for #Purdue Athletes of the Year @Steele_Johnson & @Brionna_Thomas this season. #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/31vm01PzmQ
- Purdue Swim-Dive (@PurdueMSwimDive) June 15, 2018
MULTI-YEAR WINNERS OF PURDUE MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
- Johnson was also the Purdue Male Athlete of the Year as a freshman in 2015. He joins an elite list of five Boilermakers to win the award multiple times since it was established in 1982. The group also includes his friend and Olympic teammate David Boudia (2009-11) as well as Jim Everett (1985-86), Glenn Robinson (1993-94) and Drew Brees (2000-01).
- However, Johnson is the first multi-year male winner to accomplish the feat in non-consecutive seasons. He did not compete for the Boilermakers during the 2015-16 school year while exercising an Olympic practice waiver and was the runner-up in the voting to Caleb Swanigan last season.
SIX STRAIGHT YEARS FOR TRACK & FIELD
- Thomas gives track & field an Athlete of the Year winner for the sixth straight year dating back to 2013. Three women and two men have been recognized during the streak -- jumper Geoff Davis (2013), throwers Dani Bunch (2014) and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (2016), and sprinters Raheem Mostert (2014, also played football), Devynne Charlton (2015 and 2017) and Thomas.
- Track & field's six-year streak matches the longest by any sport in the history of Athlete of the Year awards (since 1983 for both genders). Basketball also had a winner in six consecutive years from 1990 to 1995, with four men and two women honored during that streak. Basketball had an Athlete of the Year winner 11 times in 12 years from 1990 to 2001, with only 1996 snapping a potential 12-year streak.
- Track & field won 10 Athlete of the Year awards from 1983 to 1996. But prior to its current streak, had just one honoree (Serene Ross, 2002) this century.
POOL HAS PRODUCED THE MOST ATHLETES OF THE YEAR SINCE 2005
- Swimming & diving has accounted for 10 Athletes of the Year since 2005, most of any sport during that span. Divers have claimed eight of the 10 honors, including a combined five by Boudia and Johnson.
- Divers have won six Athlete of the Year awards since 2009, with Casey Matthews (2013), Boudia and Johnson all being recognized after winning an NCAA title. A diver had not been selected as an Athlete of the Year prior to Carrie McCambridge in 2005.
STEELE STANDS ATOP THE PODIUM AT BIG TEN, NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Johnson did not compete for two months this season while recovering from a stress fracture in his foot. But the midseason layoff did not slow him down at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships. He was victorious on 3-meter at the conference championship meet with a Big Ten-record score of 540.55, eclipsing Boudia's mark that had stood since 2011. He also won bronze on 1-meter and the consolation final on platform, accounting for a team-high 79 team points to help the Boilermakers finish in fourth place, matching the program's best showing.
- After qualifying for NCAAs in all three diving events at the Zone C Championships, Johnson posted three top-10 finishes at the national championship meet. In the 3-meter final, he changed his final-round dive as he approached the board. The gamble paid off as the increase in degree of difficulty coupled with a well-executed dive on the 4 ½ somersault tuck allowed him to surge from third to first place. In doing so, he became just the third diver since platform was added in 1990 to win five career NCAA titles. He also took home silver on 1-meter, giving him seven career top-two finishes at the NCAA Championships.
- Johnson accounted for 44 of Purdue's 54 team points at the national championship meet. The Boilermakers placed 19th in the team scoring, posting their third top-20 finish with Johnson in attendance. He ranked third among divers in team-point scoring and was tops among Big Ten divers. He's one of four men to win Big Ten Diver of the Year three times since the award was established in 1987.
BRI RACES PURDUE TO INDOOR, OUTDOOR RECORDS
- Thomas led the Boilermakers to program records at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Indoors, she was the top Big Ten finisher in a track event at the national championships. Her program-record time of 51.56 seconds in the 400-meter dash is the third fastest in Big Ten history. Thomas then ran in the 4x400-meter relay and had the Boilermakers' fastest split en route to breaking the conference record and finishing runner-up. The Boilermakers' time of 3:28.82 in the race lowered the Big Ten record by 2.51 seconds and made Purdue the eighth-fastest school in NCAA history.
- Thomas earned a pair of first team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the only woman in the conference to earn multiple first team honors indoors this year. She scored six of Purdue's program-record 14 points at the meet.
- Thomas only got faster outdoors. She opened the outdoor season by breaking three school records at the Florida Relays -- the 400-meter dash as well as the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. A month later, she was part of three event victories at prestigious Drake Relays, helping set a meet record in the mile relay.
- At the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, she became the first woman in school history to win the 400-meter dash and did so with a school record time of 51.13 seconds. It was the second-fastest time in the history of the Big Ten Championships meet. She also earned a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash after becoming the first woman in program history to run a wind-legal time under 23 seconds. Thomas wrapped up the championships by running Purdue's fastest split of the conference championship record-breaking 4x400-meter relay. She was voted the Great Lakes Region's Track Athlete of the Year for the outdoor season.
- At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she became the first woman in school history to advance to the 400-meter dash final after winning her semifinal. In the final, she broke the school record with a time of 50.78 seconds, the No. 2 time in Big Ten history, to finish third in the country. In the 4x400-meter relay, she helped the women finish second in the country. Thomas earned eight of the team's program-record 34 points to help Purdue finish eighth in the country, the team's best-ever showing.