Liberty Clark Continuing to Build Momentum Through Start of Sophomore Season with Hoosiers
From the very beginning of her career at Indiana University, Liberty Clark has excelled at every opportunity. The former high school volleyball player and daughter of Olympic medalist Haley Cope came into college with plenty of untapped potential, having never trained year-round, and immediately converted it into results.
During her freshman season, she obliterated her best times meet after meet, culminating in an NCAA Championships performance where she swam sub-1:40 in the 200-yard freestyle on two different occasions, earning second, fourth and sixth-place finishes in her individual events.
Clark carried that success into long course, her results at U.S. Nationals putting her name into the conversation for the U.S. women in the freestyle events. She placed third in the 100 free in 52.97, fourth in the 200 free at 1:56.55 and third in the 50 free at 24.28. She ended the year with the fifth-best time among American women in both sprint events and third-best in the 200 and carrying serious momentum entering the 2026-27 pre-Olympic season.
Liberty Clark at the 2026 NCAA Championships — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
A busy fall of college racing has already started in style for Clark, whose efforts vaulted Indiana to a first-place finish in the inaugural College Swimming League match. Clark took part in four wins on the day, helping Indiana to a first-place finish in the 200 free relay before topping the 50, 100 and 200-yard individual races. Her times were plenty impressive for late September: a 21.60 50 free was just 0.37 off her best time from the 2025-26 season, and her 46.60 100 free was within a half-second of her freshman-year best.
Clark could not come close to 1:39 territory in the 200 free, finishing with a win in 1:43.06, but that was just as impressive as her sprint times given that it marked her seventh race within two hours, including three rounds of 50-yard skins. The time ranks as the second-quickest recorded during this early season, hundredths behind the 1:42.99 of NCAA champion Anna Moesch at a different CSL contest the next day.
Over the next two months, Clark will have many chances to match up with high-level competition and show off her continual improvement. First up is Indiana’s home meet against Texas and Northwestern Friday, where the Longhorns will bring the likes of Erin Gemmell, Nikolett Padar, Eva Okaro, Inez Miller and Lillie Nesty to match up with Clark in her main events. Cal, Stanford and NC State will await Indiana in the Hoosiers’ next CSL match, set for October 16, and a week after that, Kentucky and USC come to Bloomington, setting up a potential showdown between Clark and Minna Abraham in the 200 free.
Indiana figures to advance to the CSL postseason, which could bring Clark head-to-head with Moesch in the freestyle events. The U.S. selection meet for the Short Course World Championships is not currently listed on Indiana’s schedule, but if Clark chooses to make the short trip to Westmont, Ill., the last weekend of October, she would have a chance to qualify for her first senior-level international team. Finally, Clark should swim her top yards times of the fall and potentially her best times the week before Thanksgiving at the Ohio State Invitational.
At every opportunity over the past 12 months, Clark has proven her status as a legitimate national-level freestyler. If she continues performing well against tough opponents this fall, she will enter the college championship season in position to challenge for individual national crowns before the international stage comes calling.
