LYNN — At Tuesday’s Lynn All-City track meet, senior Victoria Samuel finished her high school career at Lynn English. Samuel, who now goes from English maroon to Rutgers scarlet, has had a career to remember – finishing stronger than she ever thought possible.
“I think this year went a lot better than I expected,” Samuel said. “I knew I would improve from my junior year, but I didn’t think I would do as well as I did.”
Doing well would be an understatement. She was crowned the fastest girl in Lynn on Tuesday, placing first in the 100m with a time of 12.7 at the city meet.
When asked why that happened – the improvement between junior and senior year – Samuel credited her hard work, coaches, and bittersweetness of knowing it was her last hurrah.
“Going into my senior year, I knew this would be my last year of high school track, so I wanted to give it my all,” Samuel said. “I worked a lot over the summer to improve on some things. I definitely pushed myself more than in other years.”
Samuel also said her experience running the 100m at states her junior year helped fuel her motivation to work harder.
“My junior year, I went to states for the 100m for the first time,” Samuel said. “I don’t think I performed that well, so I think that made me work even harder for my senior year.”
If there is one word to describe Samuel, it’s committed. So much so, she missed a part of her prom because of a meet.
“I didn’t skip prom, but I was an hour late,” Samuel said. “They moved the GBL track meet to the day of my prom, which wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Luckily for Samuel, the GBL was able to move one of her events to the beginning. Even then, she still stayed for a few more races.
“A lot of people were asking me like, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be at prom?’ I understood why they were asking, but they are both important things and I just decided being late wasn’t too bad,” Samuel said. “I don’t regret it [and] I didn’t miss much. It was definitely worth it.”
Samuel competes in the 100m and 4x100m races in addition to long and triple jump. Despite being a star sprinter, Samuel actually started with distance.
“I started with distance when I was in middle school. I did the mile and I had to drop out of it because it was awful,” Samuel said. “I was then a 400m runner, but then I asked my coach if I could try the 100m and did really well.”
When asked why she chose Rutgers, Samuel said it checked all the boxes.
“I chose Rutgers because I really liked the atmosphere and it had a few of the majors I’m interested in,” Samuel said. “They also have a good track team, so if I decide to do track, it’s a good place to be.”
When looking back at her high school career, Samuel said she’s going to miss the people she’s met along the way.
“I made a lot of friends during track and, at times, it was one of the things that made me really happy,” Samuel said. “I’m going to miss the team, the people I met, and my coaches. I’m really grateful for the team.”
