In Return to College Swimming, Torri Huske Seeking Individual National Title While Leading Stanford
In her already international career that is already Hall-of-Fame worthy, Torri Huske has captured an individual world title and an individual Olympic gold medal while winning 26 total senior-level international medals. The win that has eluded her has been on the college level, with Huske never finishing higher than second place at the NCAA Championships.
At her freshman year NCAA Championships, Huske placed second to Alex Walsh in the 200 IM and second to Kate Douglass in the 100 butterfly before winning the B-final of the 100 freestyle (albeit with the fourth-best time of the night). A year later, Huske swam under the existing NCAA record in the 200 IM and came within hundredths of the existing 100 fly mark, only for Douglass to obliterate both records on the way to titles. The presence of Douglass, Maggie Mac Neil and Gretchen Walsh left Huske with two runnerup finishes and a third place.
She sat out collegiate competition in 2024 as she readied for the Olympics, a decision which paid off with 100-meter fly gold among her five-medal performance in Paris, and now she returns to college with the Walsh sisters as her main obstacles to individual titles. The task of winning will be easier in 2026, with Huske in her senior season with the Cardinal and both Alex and Gretchen having exhausted their NCAA eligibility, but we should not count out Huske’s chances of getting the job done this year.
That does not mean she can pull off another upset of Gretchen in 100 fly, not in the short course format where the Virginia senior spends the majority of the race underwater and can avoid the fading that allowed Huske to run her down in the Olympic final. But the 200 IM could look different as Huske races against the elder Walsh sister, already a three-time national champion in the event. Huske’s improvement in the long course 200-meter IM is evidence.
She swam the event at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, but having already qualified in the 100 fly and 100 free, opted out of the final to focus on the 50 free. But prior to that decision, Huske had a real chance of stealing an Olympic spot in the event after dropping her best time from 2:09.75 to 2:08.47 during the previous few months. That time was less than four tenths slower than what Kaylee McKeown swam to win Olympic bronze in the event.
Torri Huske — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
And even though Huske primarily excels in butterfly and freestyle, she is no slouch in the other strokes. Breaststroke would perhaps be considered her weakest stroke, but in Stanford’s dual meet against UCLA last weekend, Huske clocked 2:08.82 in the 200-yard breast, the time ranking her among the top-20 performers in the country this college season. Safe to say that she is the only swimmer ranked that high who will not pursue the event at the NCAA Championships.
Meanwhile, Huske has shown huge improvements in freestyle over the past year. She swam a best time by more than a half-second on her way to a surprise Olympic silver in the 100-meter free in Paris, and she posted a 200-yard time of 1:41.90 in Stanford’s dual meet against USC. That time was a lifetime best by three hundredths and the No. 3 mark in the country this season. In fact, a run at a national title in the 200 free might be plausible, although that would require Huske dropping the 100 fly at the NCAA Championships with the two races held back to back.
Whatever her individual results, Huske will be the star of a Stanford team aiming for a jump in the standings after a fifth-place finish last season. Previously, the Cardinal won three consecutive women’s national titles from 2017 through 2019 when Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, Ella Eastin and Brooke Forde were winning individual crowns, and after Huske played a big role in third-place finishes in 2022 and 2023, that target will be again within reach this season, with an outside shot at beating Texas for the No. 2 spot.
Huske will have some help on this year’s team: senior distance specialist Aurora Roghair currently ranks second nationally in the 1650 free and third in the 500 free, and sophomore Caroline Bricker is the only swimmer to break 4:00 so far this season in the 400 IM. Lucy Bell, a junior known mostly for her individual medley swimming during her first two years, has been a revelation in the breaststroke events; her 200-yard time of 2:05.92 against USC ranks her No. 2 in the country, and in the 100, she clocked 58.53 to defeat 2022 NCAA champion Kaitlyn Dobler. Breaststroke has been a weak stroke for the Cardinal over the last five seasons, but with many accomplished breaststrokers having graduated, Bell could have an opening.
But whatever success Stanford achieves on the national level will be mostly thanks to Huske’s stardom. Even if she comes up short of that elusive individual title thanks to her strong competition, she will inevitably score 50-plus individual points and provide the critical leg in four Stanford relays. Still, for a swimmer who has already achieved so much, an individual national crown would nicely round out Huske’s résumé.
