Pitt Swimming & Diving Names Marian Clark Assistant Coach

PITTSBURGH – Marian Clark has been named an assistant coach for Pitt Swimming & Diving, Katie Kasprzak, Director of Swimming & Diving, introduced Wednesay morning. Clark transitions into the full-time teaching position after serving as this system’s director of operations since 2021.

“I couldn’t be more excited that Marian is remaining with Pitt Swimming & Diving and stepping into this role,” Kasprzak stated. “After 33 years at Pitt, she is aware of this program higher than anybody, and her ardour and dedication to our success are stronger than ever. The second I accepted this place, I knew I needed Marian by my facet.

What makes Marian particular goes properly past her data of the game. She is a job mannequin of the very best character and somebody our student-athletes, each women and men, look as much as day by day. She leads with compassion whereas bringing the competitiveness and drive that may proceed to raise our program.

Marian genuinely loves our student-athletes, this college and this program. She embodies all of the qualities you need in a coach and chief, and what I love most is that it has by no means been about her. Everything she does is centered on what’s greatest for our student-athletes and Pitt Swimming & Diving as a complete.”

Clark started her skilled profession within the Pitt Athletic Department in 1993 as the pinnacle ladies’s swimming coach.  After 9 years, she transitioned into the director of operations position for each the lads’s and girls’s groups and started teaching each genders.  In 2016, she was named Pitt’s director of athletic journey and likewise serves as an Anthony Travel account supervisor for the Athletic Department.

Prior to Pitt, Clark was an assistant coach at Florida State and Miami earlier than returning to her alma mater as head coach. During her 23-season Pitt teaching tenure, she led groups to Big East and ECAC championships and coached a number of NCAA All-Americans. Twenty-five completely different swimmers and divers coached by Clark had their names engraved on the Athletic Department Walk of Fame, and her groups achieved Academic All-American standing yearly. In every of her ultimate 4 seasons as coach, Clark’s distance swimmers represented Pitt on the NCAA Championships.

In 2014, Clark was named a Pitt Varsity Letter Club Awardee of Distinction for distinguishing herself in her occupation and enhancing the worth of Pitt’s intercollegiate athletic program.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to return to full-time coaching at Pitt,” Clark stated. “It’s an honor to stand alongside Katie, Ian, Josh and Austin as we begin this new chapter for Panther Swimming and Diving. Hail to Pitt!”

A Wilmington, Delaware, native, Clark was additionally a standout student-athlete at Pitt. She was a University Provost Scholar, graduated cum laude and was awarded the Big East Conference Post Graduate Scholarship. Clark was an NCAA qualifier, a 10-time Big East champion and a serious contributor to 4 consecutive Big East staff championships.

After commencement, Clark continued her swimming profession on the skilled degree. She was ranked No. 1 within the U.S. and No. 2 on the earth in FINA’s inaugural Open Water World Series. She held the world document for 12 years within the Capri to Naples 21-mile swim and has been inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.