National record

Drew Clark was feeling confident. 

With each powerful stroke, the Riverview High junior glided toward history. One lap led into the next, and, before long, Clark had pulled away from the competition, turning a tightly contested race into a battle for second place. 

Clark touched the wall in 15 minutes, 7.83 seconds to win the 1,650-yard freestyle at the 2015 YMCA Short Course National Championship March 30 through April 3, in Greensboro, N.C. In doing so, Clark, who finished nearly eight seconds ahead of Sarasota Sharks teammate Carter Page, set a new YMCA national record. 

“It definitely means a lot,” Clark says. “I’m a part of history for Y Nationals. My name is always going to be there. That’s a pretty special thing.” 

The record-setting swim was Clark’s final swim of the championships and his third first-place finish. 

With his strong performance, Clark helped lead the Sharks to first-place finishes in both the boys and overall team competitions. The Sharks girls team finished third. 

“It’s stressful because it’s a national meet and you’re competing to win,” says Clark, who was competing in Y Nationals for the third time. “We didn’t win last year, which was a shock, so it was nice to win again.” 

Clark opened the meet with a victory in the 1,000 freestyle, finishing in 9:00.14 after dropping 12 seconds off his time. 

“It was the first event of the meet, so it was kind of an eye-opener,” Clark says. 

Clark returned to the pool in the 500 freestyle in which he finished third in 4:24.94. He then teamed up with Page, Austin Katz and Daniel Erlenmeyer in the 800 freestyle relay, anchoring the Sharks to a first-place finish and a new national record (6:37.01). 

Clark also swam the 200 butterfly, finishing eighth in 1:53.06. 

Clark first dove into the pool when he was 7 years old, but his initial reaction to the water was anything but pleasant. He hated it and the idea of having to attend practice. 

Clark moved to Sarasota from Atlanta a year later and joined the Sharks shortly thereafter. Clark continued to swim competitively. By the time he was about 13 years old, Clark was one of the top freestylers in his age group. 

he added butterfly to his repertoire during his freshman season and has since competed in both events at the state and national level. 

“I like to race, and there’s a lot of racing in the distance events,” Clark says. “I usually feel pretty comfortable during the mile, but the end is the most painful thing in the world.” 

After taking a couple days off, Clark returned to the Selby Aquatic Center with his Sharks teammates to begin training for the 2015 Speedo Junior National Championships July 30 through Aug. 3, in San Antonio, Texas. 

Clark, who plans to swim in college, hopes to use the experience to reach his ultimate goal of swimming in the 2020 Summer Olympics, which is the same year he would graduate from college. 

“You always want to be an Olympian,” Clark says. 

“Even when I didn’t like swimming when I was little, I still thought being really fast and being an Olympian would be a cool thing to say.”