Two-Sport Athlete Clare Larsen Verbally Commits to Columbia

Clare Larsen of Santa Monica, California has announced her verbal commitment to the application process at Columbia University.*

“I chose Columbia because it checks so many boxes for me. The coaches are wonderful and provide a welcoming community for the swimmers, the school is incredible, and its location is unlike any other. I am thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful program!”

Larsen is a senior at Crossroads School who has only been swimming for three years. She told SwimSwam, “This is my first year swimming year-round. My freshman and sophomore years I played varsity soccer for my school during the season and swam for the rest of the year.” Needless to say, Larsen has improved in leaps and bounds during her high school career. As a freshman she qualified for the CIF-Southern Section Division III meet and swam the 100 breast (1:15.24) and 200 IM (2:23.85) in prelims, but only advanced to finals in the medley relay. The following year she swam the 500 free and 100 breast, qualifying for finals in the 500 free, where she placed 14th with 5:21.40. As a junior, Larsen was runner-up in the 200 free (1:52.73), only .21 away from winning the division title. She was also fourth in the 100 free (52.77) and anchored the 200 free relay (23.57) to second place. Her breaststroke split (31.23) on Crossroads’ 6th-place medley relay was 2.65 seconds faster than what she’d gone as a freshman.

Larsen swims year-round with Westside Aquatics. She was an A-finalist in the 50 free at Santa Clara Futures this summer and a B-finalist in the 100 free, and she earned best times in both events.

Top SCY times:

• 50 free – 24.42
• 100 free – 52.77
• 200 free – 1:52.73

Also making verbal commitments to the Lions for 2018-19 are Cleopatra Lim and Yanran Le.

*IVY LEAGUE DISCLAIMER: A “verbal commitment” by a coach is not an offer of admission, as only the Admissions Office has that authority. An Ivy League coach can only commit his or her support in the admissions process. Moreover, an Ivy League Likely Letter is not an offer of admission to the university.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].