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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 111 Johnson believes his college competitions are the per- fect laboratory for the world stage. "You've got to treat every competition the same, so I use college meets as a way to test out different routines for when I get to the international meets," Johnson says. "I know NCAAs can be the end all, be all for a lot of college athletes, but for me, it's never been the end all, be all. It's just been another step leading towards that summer's in- ternational meet. "But I try to keep the routine the same and use my best routine at the Olympics, based on what I've tested out during the college season." Johnson's approach to training may sound like a cli- ché but has proven incredibly effective in its simplici- ty: Do everything the best that he can, all the time. Of course, it helps being in the same facility with divers like alumnus Boudia, sophomore Brandon Loschiavo (Johnson's 10-meter synchro partner at worlds) and ju- nior Joe Cifelli. The quality of talent Soldati has attract- ed to West Lafayette, most notably 2012 gold medalist Boudia, was a big reason Johnson became a Boilermak- er. "There is no other place in the nation that was produc- ing this much 'success' in the pool and doing big things like this team was, and I knew I wanted to be a part of that," Johnson said. "The way Adam coaches and the way the divers dive and the way people work, it was just very appealing. "I think if you have good divers all training in the same place, it can breed better results. It's very mo- tivating. If, for some reason, I want to slack off on an exercise, I see someone else doing it to the best they can, and I'm like, 'Shoot, I can't slack off now.'" As a team, the Boilermakers men's swim/dive program equaled its best result in the modern era with a 13th- place finish at the NCAA championships in March and would love to score even higher in 2018. Johnson, who has a quartet of national championships and a pair of NCAA Diver-of-the-Year awards under his belt with still two seasons of eligibility remaining, is expecting big things from his squad this spring. "I think the team we have right now is one of the most successful teams I've been a part of at Purdue," Johnson said. "I've been here for a long time now, but this team just has so much drive in training and so much drive out- side the pool. "Everyone's taking care of themselves, everyone's be- ing smart, everyone's training hard, and no one's com- plaining about anything." j