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California sprinter Liberty Clark has verbally committed to Indiana University for fall 2025. Already a Junior Nationals qualifier, Sectionals champion, and four-time Futures finalist, Clark has huge potential given that she has yet to train swimming year round.
That’s because Clark is a two-sport athlete who also plays volleyball for Chico High school and Club Uptempo, where at 5’10” tall she plays opposite.
She credits volleyball for improving her swimming, especially her turns.
This summer, she trained with the Crow Canyon Sharks, which led to her dropping almost a second off her best time in the 50 free and about 1.3 seconds off her best time in the 100 free in long course. She scored individual and relay points to help the Sharks finished 2nd at the Junior National Championships.
At the USA Swimming Futures Championships in Sacramento, she placed 4th in both the 50 free and 100 free.
In prior summers, she trained with the Durham Dolphins. From a big swimming pedigree, her mom is Haley Cope, the 2001 long course World Champion in the 50 meter backstroke and 2004 Olympic silver medalist as a member of the American 400 medley relay. Her dad, Brian Clark, is the head coach of the Chico Aquajets.
I am ecstatic to be offered an opportunity to be able to train year round for the first time, and to have found a coach who will help me reach my full potential at Indiana University! Go Hoosiers!
She swam one meet in November as volleyball season was ramping up, the same weekend she announced her commitment, and swam best times in the 50 free (23.41), 100 free (50.90), 100 back (58.24), 200 back (2:06.07), and 100 fly (58.09). Even with limited preparation, that included a half-second improvement in her best time in the 100 yard free.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 23.41
- 100 free – 50.90
- 200 free – 1:52.03
- 100 fly – 58.09
- 100 back – 58.24
- 200 back – 2:06.07
- 200 IM – 2:07.85
Clark brings big high hopes for the Hoosiers who have the fastest 200 free relay (1:26.86) and second-fastest 400 free relay (3:12.86) in the Big Ten so far this season. That 200, specifically, ranks them 3rd in the NCAA.
An under-the-radar sprint crew led by a breakthrough Ohio State Invite from Kristina Paegle (21.76/47.96), Indiana has had success in recent years in squeezing potential out of this group – both on the women’s and men’s sides.
Paegle will be a senior when Clark arrives, but the rest of that sprint group will have graduated. That could quickly put the Californian in the spotlight because the Hoosiers don’t have any sprint freestylers committed in the class of 2024, and only Clark in the class of 2025.
That class of 2025 does include a pair of middle distance freestylers with some stretch. Sky Knowlton from New Hampshire (4:46 in the 500 free) swam 52.45 in March in the 100 yard free and Luci Gutierrez (1:48.1 in the 200 free) was 51.20 in the 100 yard free in March.
In the classroom, Clark has an unweighted 4.0 GPA.
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Your dad a professional swim coach and he still approves of IU? Why? It’s much different on the inside than it appears on the outside. I’m speaking from experience.
Liberty for President!
Congratulations. I can’t wait to finally get this show on the road.
Long time coming.
Creative commitment picture.
The Chico swimming legacy lives on.
Wow
Really, this is a WOW:(
Could you imagine if she chose Liberty University
Would probably have a better experience.
Indiana University. Not University of Indiana