Congratulations to Claire Pavlak '08, an outstanding swimmer who achieved an Olympic Qualifying Time in the 50-meter freestyle on March 25, 2012, at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind. during official time trials following the 2012 Division III NCAA Championship Meet. She will be competing in the Olympic Trials to be held in Omaha, Neb. from June 25 through July 2, 2012, for a spot on the 2012 Olympic Swimming and Diving Team.

Pavlak is now a senior at Emory University, majoring in Anthropology. She was a member of the Blazer Varsity Swim Team during her time at HB, and she has been a member of the Emory Swimming and Diving Team for four years. During that time, the team has won three NCAA national championships. In Pavlak's Emory career, she has earned a total of 20 All-American honors (the second highest in Emory history), as well as nine NCAA National Championships, an all-time record at Emory.

At the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships held in Indianapolis during the week of March 19, 2012, Pavlak was a part of three national-title winning relays. She swam the anchor leg on all three of the winning relays, helping the 200-yard medley relay to a win with a time of 1:42.27, the 200-yard freestyle relay to a victory with a mark of 1:32.38, and the 400-yard freestyle relay to an event win with a school-record time of 3:22.02. Included in the relays were official splits of 22.33 seconds in the 50 free during the 200-yard medley relay and 49.55 seconds in the 100 free during the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Pavlak was also a part of Emory’s all-America 400-yard medley relay team, which finished third with a time of 3:45.74. She added individual all-America performances with a third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.86 seconds in the preliminaries, and a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.74 seconds. Pavlak totaled 68 of Emory’s 639 points, helping the team win its third consecutive NCAA Division III Championship, and fifth in the program’s history. She also was named the University Athletic Association’s Swimmer of the Week and the Emory Athlete of the Week for her performance at Nationals.

Pavlak is the daughter of HB Fourth Grade teacher Mary Boutton.