Yorktown is home to approximately 2,000 students, one of which happens to be the second ranked female swimming recruit of the class of 2021. Her name is Victoria Huske, or as her friends call her, Torri. In Huske’s two year high school career, she has already accomplished more than most people do in their four year enrollment. She was the first freshman (male or female) to earn All-Met Swimmer of the Year honors. Despite her seemingly everlasting list of achievements, she constantly stays humble and when asked to brag about herself she did so apprehensively, only agreeing to do so for the sake of this article.
“Recently I broke The National High School record in 100 Fly,” Huske said.
The amount of success Huske has accomplished has come with a lot of hard work. She described from a young age her parents enrolling her in a lot of sports trying to find her niche.
“My parents when I was little tried to expose me to a lot of different sports, and swimming was just one of them. And actually in the beginning I didn’t like it because I was always cold,” Huske said.
Huske’s initial disdain towards the sport quickly left and she says she first started to realize her talent level at around 12 years old. She continued the rigorous activity for ten years and describes her grueling workout process and being able to maintain the hard feeling of motivation in great detail.
“Yeah [It is hard to stay motivated], especially in the morning practices, I think that that’s really, really tough. That’s my least favorite part of the day, waking up for morning practice, on the days that we do have them [only twice a week]… I practice everyday after school for two and a half hours. And then Saturdays I practice in the morning for three hours, then we try to double twice in the morning for an hour and a half.”
Despite the rigorous and time consuming schedule, Huske goes on to insist that going to practice, apart from morning ones, is something she has come to look forward to thanks to a little help from her friends.
“I do look forward to doing it still. I guess I just like seeing my teammates in practice,” Huske said.
Her teammates and her friends also play a big part in the motivation Huske feels every time she dives into the pool. As most student athletes know, finding the motivation to come to practice everyday and work hard is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.
“I feel like the things that keep me motivated are the people around me like my teammates, and also I like setting goals for myself,” Huske said.
Huske says when swimming she is a sprinter, meaning she swims shorter distances at extremely fast paces. Her style of swim makes her admire Olympian Katie Ledecky, since she too swims at fast paces over longer distances.
“I think Katie Ledecky’s pretty impressive just because she’s able to hold such a fast pace and do it so consistently. Since I’m more like the sprinting end of the spectrum I really like long distance swimmers they’re just really amazing,” Huske said.
Huske and Ledecky may one day have something in common, they might both be Olympians. Ledecky has competed at both the 2012 Olympics and 2016 Olympics, in London and Rio, now, despite the long road ahead, Huske has her sights set on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“I have four cutts [sort of like Olympic Tryouts] right now, but I feel like I can definitely get it more, some of my best times, all I have to do is drop a little bit of time to get a few more. So far I think I have 200 I.M., 100 Fly, 50 Free, and 100 Free maybe. I feel like a lot of people always ask me, ‘do you think you can go to The Olympics?’ But honestly I think it’s kind of a long shot, I feel like people don’t realize all the hard work that goes into it. Some people train their whole lives for it, dedicate their lives completely to it. At Trials I do want to maybe place in like top eight but I don’t think that’s going to happen. If I had a chance [to go the Olympics] that would be in college,” Huske said.
The collegiate swimming route is something Huske has expressed interest in, saying that it is something she would really like to do, however at the moment no coaches have been in contact with her due to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules on athletes having to be a junior before contact is made.
“I want to swim in college. I don’t have any idea yet [where I will end up going]. All I really know is that I probably want to swim in college,” Huske said.
Post high school, Huske plans to devote another four years to the sport she has devoted well over half of her life to, but after those four years of schooling is done, she has still is unsure if she would like to swim as a professional.
“I don’t know if I’ll become a professional, I don’t really know. I feel like if you want to swim professionally then you have to be like an Olympian. I’ll just kind of go where it takes me,” Huske said.
Huske’s talent in swimming is undeniable, her awards and achievements speak for themselves. From what she has showed us in her two short sample size high school years it is evident that swimming can take her a long way. No matter where she goes she will have Yorktown behind her.
