When the time came to pick a university, it was a fairly easy decision for Morgan Mark.
Having spent lots of time in Hawaii for family vacations, Mark chose to attend the University of Hawaii at Manao.
“I have a lot of happy memories from there,” she said.
“I feel at home when I am there (so) it is not going away from home too much.”
The 18-year-old, who graduated from Walnut Grove Secondary in June, will swim for the Rainbow Wahine.
She had considered the University of New Mexico, but ultimately chose Hawaii.
Mark is excited — and nervous — for what awaits, but is ready for the challenges and rigors of competing at the university level.
She began swimming at age seven, first with a club in Cloverdale, and then with the Langley Olympians Swim Club when the family moved to Langley.
Joining the Olympians was one of the catalysts of her swim career.
“It was huge and a shock to me,” she said about the increased time requirements that an elite program such as this required.
“That was a really good foundation for the start of my swimming career.
“It taught me mental toughness, mental strength.”
She switched to UBC’s age group international program two years ago under coach Tom Rushton, which required not only the commute to Vancouver for training, but daily five-hour sessions.
“That opened a lot more doors,” she explained in regards to competing internationally and just seeing a different type of training.
Mark also played water polo and eight years of karate growing up.
The latter “taught me a lot of discipline and taught me to focus,” she said.
“When I was little, I was full of energy and bounced off walls.”
Swimming won out in the end.
“You can’t do all the sports, and I was succeeding more in swimming and I could see myself in that,” she said. “There was a future in swimming.”
Mark plans on studying biology while at school, and then return home to get her teaching certificate to become a biology teacher.
As for her future in the sport, her goal is simply to enjoy swimming as much as she did growing up.
She also still harbours some thoughts of the Olympics down the road.
“I think about it a littlte bit, but it is not my number one goal (right now),” she said.
Mark specializes in the 50m free, 50m fly, 100m fly and 200 individual medley events.
