They'll compete at home this weekend for the last time in the regular season.  In fact, they'll compete at home this weekend for the only time in the regular season.
 
With that, I know I've lost most of you.  After the first sentence, I'm sure most of the seven of you still reading this thought I was referencing the Johns Hopkins men's and women's basketball teams, which do in fact compete at home for the final time in the regular season on Saturday afternoon.
 
No, I was referring to the two most successful – historically speaking – winter teams at Johns Hopkins; men's and women's swimming.
 
Head coach Scott Armstrong's men's and women's teams will host the Blue Jay Invitational starting at 5 pm on Friday and continuing on with sessions at 10 am and 3 pm on Saturday.
 
Didn't know that?  Which part?  That we are hosting the event or that the men's and women's swimming teams are the most successful winter teams we have?  Either way, that's my fault.  You should know both of those things - and I should be making sure. 
 
It's my job to know everything Blue Jay Athletics and share accordingly.  Nothing about the success we've enjoyed is actually a secret, and yet the decades-long success of these two programs may be Hopkins' best kept secret to everyone except the most ardent followers of the two programs.
 
Did you know …
… Johns Hopkins' men's swimming team is currently ranked second in the nation, while the women are ranked fifth?
 
… 92 times this season a men's swimmer has hit an NCAA qualifying mark and nine times a Blue Jay men's relay team has done the same?
 
… 53 times this season a women's swimmer has hit an NCAA qualifying mark and 10 times a Blue Jay women's relay team has done the same?
 
… The Blue Jay women are 9-4 on the year with wins against Division I William & Mary, the University of Miami, the University of Delaware and UMBC?  Division III wins include dustings of 11^th-ranked Carnegie Mellon and 10^th-ranked NYU.
 
… The men's team is 7-5?  Every loss is to a Division I team and there are the same nationally-ranked Division III victims in Carnegie Mellon and NYU along with Patriot League standout Bucknell.
 
… Both teams placed first at the Division I-only field (except for JHU) at Loyola's Thomas Murphy Invitational and also had strong showings at Princeton's Big Al Invite and the Ohio State Winter Invitational?
 
All of that is just from this year.  Need me to share more secrets?
 
• The men's swimming team has placed in the top five at the NCAA Championships 29 times.  Translation – the men's swimming team has placed in the top five at the NCAA Championships more than any other men's team in Johns Hopkins history.
 
• The women's swimming team has placed in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships 22 times.  The last time Johns Hopkins did not qualify anyone for the NCAA Women's Swimming Championships was … never.
 
• Combined, the two teams have produced 80 individual or relay national champions since Bill Milne won the first of his school-record nine individual titles in 1971.
 
• The men's team owns three NCAA Championships – these are the only three Division III men's team national championships in Johns Hopkins history.
 
•  The last Olympian from Johns Hopkins?  You know, that would be 10-time national champion (yes, 10-time national champion) Ana Bogdanovski, who not only represented Macedonia in the 2016 Rio Summer Games, she also carried the national flag in the opening ceremony.  Oh yeah, Ana was also the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year … twice!
 
Did I mention the 13 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients or 21 all-time CoSIDA Academic All-Americans the programs have produced?  I didn't, but hopefully if you are still reading, you get the point.
 
It's likely I've shared some things you may have known.  It's more likely I've shared some things you didn't.  Either way, they'll compete at home for the last time this season on Friday and Saturday.  Now that you know some things about them, I hope to see you at the Blue Jay Invitational this weekend.  After all, their success is no longer a secret and you'll want to catch them in action before it's too late.
   
Ernie Larossa is in his 23rd year as the Director of Athletic Communications at Johns Hopkins.  In short, he has the greatest job in the world; he gets paid to watch Johns Hopkins athletes compete and chronicle their achievements.  In September, 2017, he decided it was time to periodically pen a column about something related to Blue Jay athletics.