Amelia Murphy

For senior Amelia Murphy, winning first place at the IHSA sectional swim meet was the highlight of the season. The Geneva High School student, who has verbally committed to Illinois State University where she intends to continue her swimming career, considers herself lucky to be part of the WEGO team.

“Many of the girls I do (or have) swam with in the past during club season, which helped because I already knew so many girls,” said Murphy.

Murphy placed first in the 100 free at last weekend’s sectional meet with a time of 1:52:53, which is even faster than her 2022 time in the same event at state last year.

While it can be challenging to face the mental blocks of “knowing I’m racing other girls that are equally as fast, or faster, than I am,” Murphy is determined to leave the FMC Natatorium without regrets, and with a little luck on her side, is bound to perform well.

“I personally have a warmup/shake out routine I follow before each race. But specific to high school season, we always have a piece of paper near the blocks that has an outline of a hand saying ‘high five for good luck’. I always make sure to high five that piece of paper before each race at home,” Murphy said.

Heading into state, Murphy will give that paper one last high five, and intends to “leave everything I have in that pool. It’s my senior season, I want to go out knowing I put everything I had into my final races.”