March 22, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Johns Hopkins junior John Thomas (Montrose, CO/Montrose) was named the NCAA Men's Swimmer of the Year on Saturday night at the 2009 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. Thomas led the Blue Jays to an 11th place finish at the championships.
Thomas swept both the 100 and 200 Backstroke titles, becoming the first swimmer to do so since 2001. And he did so in record-breaking fashion. On Friday morning, he earned the top seed in the finals of the 100 Back with an NCAA record time of 48.52. That night, he won his second career individual NCAA title with a finals time of 48.65. Thomas now owns the top 10 fastest times in the 100 Back in Johns Hopkins history.
Thomas followed that on Saturday with another record-breaking swim and successfully defended his title in the 200 Back. In the morning, he broke the NCAA record with a prelim time of 1:47.07, earning the top seed for the finals by nearly a second. Thomas turned it up in the finals that night, clocking in at 1:46.71 to break his record from the morning swim. He became the first swimmer to win back-to-back titles in the 200 Back since 2005 and the first to sweep both the 100 and 200 in the same year since 2001. He now owns eight of the 10 fastest times in the 200 Back in school history.
In addition to his exploits in the Backstroke event, Thomas also swam on and earned All-America honors on all five of Hopkins relay teams. Thomas now claims three individual NCAA titles, one relay NCAA title (400 Medley Relay, 2007) and 20 All-America honors to his credit. He is tied for sixth in program history in All-America honors and is tied for seventh with his four NCAA titles.
