Eastern Washington University Athletics

The school record holder in the high jump for 14 years, Nelson-Clark won the high jump title with an effort of 5-2 at the 1971 National Intercollegiate Track and Field Championships for Women. She helped Eastern place fifth as a team, and 13th in 1970 when she was the national runner-up, also with a leap of 5-2. Nelson-Clark had a jump of 5-6 1/2 in the 1971 season which ranked as a school record for 14 years until broken in 1985 (Gayle Huff, 5-8). It still ranks as the sixth-best jump in school history (entering the 2016 season), and is the only pre-1979 mark in any event on Eastern’s top-10 all-time leaders lists. She also held the school record in the long jump with a jump of 18-0 in 1969, and also competed in that event at the 1971 national championships. She and teammate Dee Stonebook (fourth in the long jump) ran legs on the third-place finishing 440-yard relay team and sixth-place 880-yard medley relay. In addition, she was a hurdler at Eastern and competed on the basketball team. The 1971 championships took place for the third time and were hosted by Eastern at Woodward Stadium in a steady downpour of rain. Nelson-Clark, other student-athletes and administrators helped pave the way for other females to be involved in collegiate athletics at Eastern, right before Title IX was enacted in 1972. Prior to that, the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women encouraged the “development of programs for the highly-skilled woman athlete, an area long neglected by professional physical educators.” The commission’s hope was to help “foster growing competitive levels on the local, state and regional levels.” Nelson-Clark also competed in the seven events of the heptathlon as a collegian, and was the West Coast champion in that event in 1970. Her multi-event prowess was honed by typically competing in meets in the high jump, long jump, 100 hurdles, javelin and two relays. The 1968 graduate of Mead High School in Spokane competed three seasons for Eastern before moving on to receive her physical therapy degree from the University of Washington. She competed one season in track and field for the Huskies, and eventually became co-owner of APEX Physical Therapy in Spokane and Cheney. She is currently with Synergy Healthcare in Spokane. Said EWU Hall of Fame coach Jerry Martin: “She was very helpful during my coaching career at Eastern. I often contacted her for suggestions regarding injury rehabilitation and post injury workouts.” Nelson-Clark earned her bachelor of arts/teaching certification from Eastern, then received her bachelor of science in physical therapy at Washington. She is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the orthopedic/sports section within that organization. She has also coached track and field at Mead High School track and premier soccer for the Skyhawks, and has been an athletic trainer in multiple sports at Mead and Mt. Spokane high schools for more than 25 years. Her father was a basketball/football player for Kansas State and her daughter, Chelsea, played basketball at Gonzaga. Her son, Casey, competed in track and field at Arizona State and followed in her footsteps as a high jumper. She and her husband, Bob Clark, were recognized in the spring 2016 edition of the Eastern Magazine as one of six couples who all met while at Eastern and were married in 1972. That group returned to EWU the previous fall for a reunion of the Sigma Nu Fraternity.