After opening her collegiate career by winning Northwest Conference titles in three events, earning a spot in the NCAA Division III Championships and being named NWC Women's Swimmer of the Year,
Amanda Clark quickly put her name in the Pacific swimming record books with a career that would see her named the 2015 Outstanding Female Senior Athlete.
Her strong freshman season alone would've put Clark amongst the best swimmers in Pacific history, but following a sophomore season that did not meet her own expectations, the Olympia, Wash. native would go on to win two more conference titles and more than a handful of All-NWC honors before graduating with a degree in biology last Saturday.
Clark made her mark at Pacific in freestyle distance swimming, a discipline she quickly adapted to in her teenage years. Clark holds school records in each freestyle race of 200 yards or more, with her greatest success coming in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
"Coaches told me I was good at it and I needed to swim it," Clark said with a smile, as she thought back to her start in distance swimming.
"When I was 14 or 15 I did pretty well my first time swimming the mile," Clark added. "My first time I figured, 'oh, I'm just going to finish,' and I did reasonably well. The next time I swam it I cut off a bunch of time and my coach decided I'm going to be a distance swimmer."
Clark had spent the early years of her competitive swimming career swimming different strokes and different distances before she transitioned into freestyle distance, which was what Pacific head coach
Alec Webster envisioned her competing in as a Boxers.
As Clark began her career at Pacific she was focused on showing she belonged and the serious side of competition.
"I remember the first practice," Clark said. "All I wanted to do was show that I was fast enough to be part of this team and that I could help earn us points."
Clark quickly proved she was fast enough when Pacific headed to Spokane, Wash., to swim in a dual meet against the Whitworth Pirates. The Boxers fell to the Pirates 113-92 that day, but Clark won the 500-yard freestyle and the 1,000-yard freestyle, while also swimming as part of the 400-yard freestyle relay team that won its race against Whitworth.
All three of Clark's victories snapped school records and cemented Clark into the Pacific record books early in her collegiate career.
Clark continued to impress, earning NWC Student-Athlete of the Week for the first time in her career after breaking her own school record in the 500-yard freestyle and setting more school records in the process at the Northwest Invitational.
Finishing the dual season with three student-athlete of the week honors, Clark entered the 2012 NWC Championships in Federal Way, Wash., on an upswing.
Clark's first individual final of her collegiate career came in the 500-yard freestyle, a race she not only won, but won with a school record time. Clark also earned a NCAA B cut, making her the first Boxer to earn a provisional mark since 2003.
Clark would go on to win conference titles in three events, while also earning all-conference honors in the 400-yard freestyle relay on her way to being named NWC Women's Swimmer of the Year.
Next up for Clark was a trip to the NCAA Division III Championships in Indianapolis after her qualifying time from her conference title winning 1,650-yard freestyle race earned her a NCAA bid.
"It was scary," Clark remembers. "It was the biggest meet I've ever been to. I was really glad to have Katie [Porter] there with me because there was someone I knew. The other Northwest Conference teams were really friendly and a couple of them had been there before and took us in because we were new."
After competing at nationals during her freshman season, Clark headed into her sophomore season with high expectations and quickly earned recognition for her sophomore season with student-athlete of the week recognition after leading Pacific to its first ever dual victory over Puget Sound.
Despite regular season success, Clark was faced with adversity at the NWC Championships in 2013, finishing no better than second in her races and picking up all-conference honors in just two events.
The NWC Championships during her sophomore season proved a turning point in Clark's mindset in the pool. It was after finishing without an individual conference title that Clark remembered that she needed to have fun in the pool.
"I didn't do as well as I'd hoped at conference," Clark said. "It was a wake-up call to me that swimming wasn't everything and that I'm supposed to be doing this for fun. When I wasn't having fun it made me realize not to take things so serious, because what I will remember is the fun."
Looking back after her four years at Pacific, Clark remembers the serious approach she took to the pool in her first two seasons, but echoed the belief that the fun times are what will stick with her throughout the years beyond swimming.
"I still took it seriously the last two years, but I figure later on in my life I'll want to look back and remember the time with my friends and at conference championships, not every single practice being really serious and worrying about how I did at each dual meet," Clark said.
Clark's new mindset remained with her in the pool as a junior, focusing on having fun with the intention on building toward strong showings in the conference championship. Evidence of the new approach could be seen in Clark's performance at the 2014 NWC Swimming Championship, which saw Clark win the conference title in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
"If it's a dual meet, I am just worrying about finishing and keeping my stroke long and effortless," Clark said.
After a strong showing in the 2014-15 dual season, Clark reflected on the mindset she carried entering the final conference championships of her collegiate career.
"At conference, this year especially, all I wanted to do was win and finish on a high note," Clark said. "I was concerned about the girl next to me and when she started to fall behind, all I wanted to do was stay in front of her. I can't see very well when I'm swimming, but I can see shapes and I could see my team cheering me on. I just thought, 'all I need to do is finish, this is my last one and it's going to be great."
And great it was, as she entered the pool for her final 1,650-yard freestyle final. Clark was placed in a lane next to Pacific Lutheran's Erica Muller, who took an early 10-second lead over Clark after two lengths. The next lap saw Clark overtake Muller, before slowly pushing out of the reach of the Pacific Lutheran sophomore.
Clark's lead was cemented during the final lap of the race, which was her second fastest of the race at 30.64 seconds, as she picked up a victory by roughly 18 seconds over Muller and the rest of the field.
Adding to the excitement of Clark's third conference title in the event was the fact that with Pacific serving as the host for the event, Clark's father Gary, was acting as a timer on the pool deck.
"It was really exciting," Clark said. "My parents got to be on the deck and my dad was a timer – he was so excited."
Done with her collegiate swimming career and done in the classroom after graduating from Pacific on Saturday, Clark is set to put her biology degree to good use after using summers in college to volunteer at the Capital Medical Center in Olympia and also aiding in summer research with the Lisa Sardinia, an Associate Professor in Pacific biology department.
"I'm hoping, since I'm not going to graduate school right away that I can find a job in the field of microbiology or cellular biology," Clark said. "I want to do something in a lab and maybe doing research on different diseases and antibiotics."
While the future is still to be written for Clark, her collegiate career in the pool will go down as one of the best in school history. In addition to four school records in individual races and four relay records, Clark wraps her career as a five-time NWC champion, 15 All-NWC honors and five NWC Student-Athlete of the Week awards.
