Connecticut College junior Justin Finkel was named Division III Swimmer of the Year by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America on Monday.

Finkel is the first Conn College swimmer to earn the honor, and the first athlete (fourth overall) from the New England Small College Athletic Conference to be recognized since John Dillion of Middlebury in 2010.

Finkel won a pair of national titles last week at the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Finkel won the eighth individual national title in school history on March 20 in the 500 freestyle, breaking school and NESCAC records in the process. He was Conn's first individual national champion since women's swimmer Mary Erb in 2017, and the first men's swimmer to reach the pinnacle since Sam Gill in 2014.

The wait for a ninth title was decidedly shorter, as two days later Finkel broke the NCAA DIII national record en route to victory in the 200 butterfly. He became just the second Conn College student-athlete to win multiple national titles, and the first to do so in the same NCAA Championship.

Finkel, who accounted for all of the Camels’ 55 points at the NCAA Championship, is the first men's swimmer in Conn’s history to qualify for championship finals in three individual events at the same NCAA Championship. He earned All-America honors in each, which included a fourth-place finish in the 200 free.

Conn College finished 17th out of 44 scoring teams in the men’s field. The 55 points rank as the third-highest point total in the program's 17 NCAA Championship appearances.