Liberty Clark and Camille Spink Continue Upward Trajectory as Promising Team USA Contributors
As the United States prepares for the Pan Pacific Championships, its women’s roster is stacked with talent. It’s an embarrassment of riches, really, with minimal weak points identifiable. Team USA is expected to shine brightly at Pan Pacs, which is being held for the first time since 2018 and serves as this year’s major international competition. It will be surprising if a handful of world records do not fall at the William Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine (Calif.).
Despite the richness of the American arsenal that will go to work at Pan Pacs, it’s always a positive to possess depth and developing stars who – in the future – could provide an impact, and challenge the existing top guns. Count Liberty Clark and Camille Spink in that category, as the pair excelled at last week’s National Championships and positioned themselves as contenders to represent the United States in major global waters.
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Clark and Spink are well-known names in the sport, thanks to the talent they have flashed during their collegiate days at Indiana and Tennessee, respectively. Clark is entering her second season in Bloomington, and is coming off an inaugural college campaign in which she recorded a trio of top-six finishes at the NCAA Championships, highlighted by a runnerup finish in the 200-yard freestyle, where she cracked the 1:40 barrier (1:39.88). As for Spink, set to begin her senior year, the Volunteer also had three top-six showings at NCAAs, including a third-place effort in the 50 freestyle.
The college performances of Clark and Spink were complemented by multiple elite swims at Nationals, the tandem combining to go six-for-six in personal-best freestyle times. Clark opened her meet with a third-place finish in the 100 freestyle, a mark of 52.97 taking her under the 53-second barrier for the first time. The Indiana standout added a fourth-place effort in the 200 freestyle (1:56.55) and was third in the 50 freestyle, with her time of 24.28 good for a National Age Group (NAG) record in the 17-18 classification.
Meanwhile, Spink was fourth in both the 50 freestyle (24.39) and 100 freestyle (53.19) and checked in with a fifth-place performance in the 200 freestyle (1:57.11). Spink’s time in the 100 freestyle was nearly a one-second improvement over her personal best entering the meet.
Next year, the swimming calendar will feature a return to an all-encompassing international meet, with the World Championships scheduled for Budapest. If Clark and Spink can continue their upward trajectory, perhaps they’ll earn the chance to race inside Duna Arena. Without question, they are trending in the right direction.
