Waters flying all around the room. Girls are talking and laughing, building the excitement for the races they are about to swim. This is sectionals for girls swimming. Starting at 10:30am on November 8th, swimmers started preparing to take on their races at 12pm, swimming laps for warmup. For the second year in a row, 12 schools brought their best swimmers to the East Leyden Pool for the meet. These schools include: Leyden, Lane Tech, Fenwick, Senn, Northside Prep, DePaul Prep, Morton, Oak Park-River Forest, and more.
Hannah Fabino, the swim captain at Senn who sadly was unable to swim shares that “ It’s a really big honor for us. We had a couple really rough years where we couldn’t find swimmers who were motivated to swim. So we took a lot of people in who didn’t know how to swim, and swim, and I taught them how to swim, or other people have taught them how to swim. So, you know, it’s really exciting for us to be able to make it to sectionals when a lot of us didn’t know how to swim when they started”
Senn was able to take home 8th beating 4 other schools. One school they couldn’t beat was DePaul Prep, who came 6th in sectionals, being able to get medals in the 50 yard Free and the 200 I.M. DePauls Assistant Coach, Brett Parker says, “Coaching for me is just a really exciting thing to be a part of. Our girls have worked so hard. And I think for me as a coach, I’m so proud of where we’ve come and where we’re at now. So for me, it’s just, I think I’m super proud.
All their hard work has made them close to the top 5 but the school who had gotten in the way was Leyden. Winning 113.5 points, swimmers who are full of dedication and enjoy having fun while they swim.
Sophomore at West Leyden, Emily Martinez, shared how she was able to make it to sectionals this year, “Yeah, so I worked really hard, in the past few months. I did water polo, and then during the summer I was in some other swim team, the Narwhal swim team. So it just got better.”
Leyden’s sectional swim team this year didn’t only have sophomores but also a freshman, Kamilla Williams, who was able to do a 50 free in 29.94, seconds winning her 13th place.
“When I was told I’d be swimming in sectionals, I was very nervous at first,” says Kamilla, “but it was an honor to be chosen to be a part of the sectionals team.”
The two girls spent most of the season swimming with JV improving with every practice. Even helping JV win conference on October 24, 2025.
Mrs. Dewey, coach of the JV team says “If my girls get chosen to swim for sectionals, that’s a really big honor. My girls usually swim JV, so it shows that they’ve put in a lot of hard work and that their times are competitive with the varsity. So it’s a really big honor.”
This sectionals will be the last meet for the girls swim team as it wraps up the end of the fall sports. Ending with the records, 4-4 for varsity and 8-0 for JV.
“At first I was so happy that the season was ending,I’m not going to lie because I didn’t have to stress about not having enough time to do stuff.” says Emily Martinez, “ But then I realize how much I already miss this season, the friendship we make along the way, the relationship you make with your coaches and teammates.”
Emily Martinez, Coach Cook, Emily Gacon
With their 5th place win at sectionals we wish the Leyden girls swim team good luck in their next season next school year and congratulate the girls who swam at sectionals this year.
