Torri Huske, the defending NCAA champion in the 200 IM, has opted to focus on the 50 free, 100 fly, and 100 free for Day 4 of the 2026 NCAA Championships, choosing not to defend her 200 IM title this year. Huske will instead race the 50 free, 100 fly, and 100 free in what will be her final NCAA appearance.
This marks a shift from her usual schedule over the past three championships, where she typically swam the 200 IM on day two, the 100 fly on day three, and the 100 free on day four, while skipping the 50 free on day one. With the 200 IM moved to day four this season and lined up back-to-back with the 100 free, the 50 free became an easier choice to slot in on day one.
On paper, the 200 IM looked like the safer route to a title. Huske owns a personal best of 1:49.67 and entered as the national leader after posting 1:51.27 at ACCs, narrowly out-touching Louisville freshman Anastasia Gorbenko (1:51.30).
The 100 free presents an exceptionally deep field, widely regarded as the most competitive ever, with ten swimmers seeded under 47 seconds. Huske isn’t the top seed here; Virginia sophomore Anna Moesch led the way with 45.71 to Huske’s 45.79 at the ACCs. Other contenders, like Tennessee’s Camille Spink and Virginia freshman Sara Curtis, sit in the 46.0s, making this race very unpredictable compared to Huske’s 200 IM chances.
In the 50 free, Huske is the No. 2 seed behind Spink, entering with a season-best 21.01. Her lifetime best of 20.92, achieved as a relay leadoff at last year’s NCAAs, would place her just five-hundredths behind Spink’s national-leading 20.87 from the SEC Championships.
Meanwhile, the 100 fly is viewed as Huske’s strongest individual shot, where she holds a 0.21-second edge over Virginia redshirt junior Claire Curzan (48.26 vs. 48.47), with both posting lifetime-best times at ACCs.
Huske has been one of the most consistent performers at NCAAs, recording eight personal-best efforts in her first three seasons at Stanford. Yet individual titles have proved elusive against Virginia’s dominant trio of Gretchen Walsh, Alex Walsh, and Kate Douglass, all of whom have since graduated.
As a freshman in 2022, Huske posted best times in all three events, finishing second in the 100 fly (49.17) and 200 IM (1:51.81) and ninth in the 100 free (46.98). In 2023, she finished second in the 100 free (46.46) and 200 IM (1:50.06) and third in the 100 fly (48.96), lowering her times across the board.
Returning after an Olympic redshirt season, she broke through last year with a win in the 200 IM (1:49.67), moving to third all time in the event. She also placed second in the 100 free (46.01) and 100 fly (48.90), events that had long been dominated by the now-graduated Gretchen Walsh.
In This Story
- Alex Walsh
- Claire Curzan
- Gretchen Walsh
- Kate Douglass
- Maggie MacNeil
- Sara Curtis
- Torri Huske
