With her most recent Big Ten Swimmer and Freshman of the Week awards, Indiana freshman standout Liberty Clark has become the first woman to be awarded a Big Ten weekly award nine times in a single season.
Clark was named the Big Ten Freshman of the week three times in October and once in November. Since the start of the new year, Clark has earned weekly conference recognition on three different occasions, including two double honors.
The double recognition comes for the second time this season, following Clark’s three-program record performance over the weekend against Louisville. The freshman broke her own program bests in both the 50 freestyle (21.48) and 100 free (46.36), earning an event win in the 100, a time that also set a new Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center record. Clark added another pool record in the 200 free (1:41.35), leading a 1-2 finish with teammate Alex Shackell.
The Hoosier women’s 400 free relay, in which Clark swam the leadoff leg in 46.38, took over a second and a half off the three-week-old program record in 3:08.07, tying the Big Ten conference record, and setting a new pool record in the process.
The first time that Clark earned both recognitions in the same week was when the Hoosiers travelled to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan. There, Clark went on to earn three individual wins, claiming the 50 (21.83), 100 (47.26), and 200 freestyles (1:42.10), and leading off the 400 free relay (47.26), a relay that, before their performance against Louisville, marked the fastest ever in Hoosier history at 3:09.81.
Liberty Clark Big Ten Weekly Awards (2025-26 Season):
- October 1
- Freshman of the Week
- October 15
- Freshman of the Week
- October 29
- Freshman of the Week
- November 26
- Freshman of the Week
- January 14
- Co-Swimmer of the Week (with Michigan’s Hannah Bellard)
- Freshman of the Week
- January 28
- Freshman of the Week
- February 4
- Swimmer of the Week
- Freshman of the Week
This season, Clark is the only women’s swimmer to repeat as freshman of the week. Other winners of the Freshman of the Week award include Kayla Barr (Minnesota), Payton Flowers (Iowa), Jada Duncan (UCLA), Emilianna Gonzalez (Rutgers), Carrie Furbee (Ohio State), and Brooke Corrigan (Wisconsin).
Her teammate, Miranda Grana, and Michigan’s Bella Sims are the only other two swimmers, along with Clark, to have been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week more than once this season; with Grana earning that honor four times, and Sims being recognized twice.
Clark and the Hoosiers women will head to the University of Minneapolis to compete at the Women’s Big Ten Conference Championships from February 18-21. Their NCAA qualifiers will then travel to Atlanta, Ga., on March 18th for the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
Clark currently sits 3rd in Division I in the 100 free, 4th in the 200 free, and is tied with Virginia’s Claire Curzan for 7th in the 50 free this season.
The ladies actually swim in Minneapolis for Big 10’s from February 18 to the 21.