Though she is an ocean away from home, Victoria Voronko doesn’t mind being at Eastern Michigan University.
Voronko is a freshman cross-country runner from Moscow, Russia. She had only lived in Moscow for two years, during college, but has lived in Russia for her whole life.
She loves to run and she’s been running cross-country ever since she was in sixth grade.
“I love running cross country because it’s difficult,” Voronko said. “I always like to challenge myself [when it comes to running], and I love to work hard.”
Joining the Eagles was an obvious choice for Voronko.
“It’s because they have a good team,” Voronko said on why she chose to come to EMU. “They run very fast. I want to run here.”
Voronko recently finished first (21:48.3) in the 6,000-meter course for the George Dales Invitational Saturday in Three Rivers, Mich. It was her first collegiate win.
“I think she’s doing really great, and I’m excited about her,” teammate Beverly Elcock said. “She brings a lot of diversity to the team, she’s pretty outgoing, she challenges herself and she likes to work hard and brings a hard-working spirit.”
Even though she’s only been with the team for two weeks, coach Sue Parks loves what Voronko brings to the team. With that, there is one thing she’s still trying to grasp: She’s a tad bit shy when it comes to speaking English.
Despite her nervousness when it comes to speaking the language, she can understand it fairly well.
“[Victoria] understands what you’re saying,” Parks said. “She has only been here for two weeks, and she’s nervous when it comes to speaking English. It’s when she’s nervous about something she’ll get a little bit shy but when warms up to it she’ll show herself.”
Outside of running, Voronko enjoys playing volleyball and swimming in her spare time.
“She’s pretty open and honest,” Elcock said. “She has a very eclectic music taste, she likes a lot of different kinds of music.”
Her teammates have nothing but the best to say about her.
“She is very honest,” Elcock said. “She’ll tell you what she likes and doesn’t like, so she’s pretty open and honest.”
