'Like it or not, it's what I'm best at': James Murray, NIC-10's reluctant distance swimmer
James Murray didn’t choose the event he would become known for on his first day of Auburn swim practice.
He was assigned it.
In a move that almost seemed like a hazing ritual.
“As the freshman, I of course was put in the 500,” Murray says.
No, no, Auburn coach Dennis Bullard interjected. This was nothing about giving the newbie the most unwanted role.
“I just figured he was the only club swimmer on the team, so I thought you could do it,” Bullard said. “I just figured he had done a 500 before. He had never done one. Now he is doing 500s, 1,000s, 800s, miles.”
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And doing them well. Murray won his second NIC-10 title in the 500-yard freestyle at the conference meet last week. He also won the 200 for the first time. He is a rare conference champion — and very rare three-time conference champ — at Auburn with a chance to win two more next year.
"Having James achieve such an accomplishment is amazing for the team," said junior teammate Henry Peifer, who finished third in the 50 free last week. "It really shows how hard work and dedication pays off."
But even a pair of NIC-10 titles doesn't mean the 5-foot-9, 155-pound junior has ever fully embraced high school swimming’s longest event.
“I am still trying to like the 500,” Murray said. “Man, my freshman year, I was just praying I wouldn’t have to do another 500. But it just kept happening. Every single meet, he (Bullard) would put me in the 500. And after every one, I’d be, ‘Please, no more 500s.’ But they just kept coming and I just kept improving.”
Great athletes can sometimes love things they are not great at. Michael Jordan loved baseball so much that he gave up the NBA for most of two years. Charles Barkley loves golf enough to look like a fool swinging a club.
The opposite is rarer. It’s hard not to like what you are best at. Still, Murray has not yet fully embraced swimming’s distance events.
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“I’ve learned to tolerate the 500,” he said. “I’ve definitely had my ups and downs with it. So far, I am tolerating it. Luckily.
“Like it or not, it is what I am best at.”
His motivation is not a love for the event, but a yearning to win.
“It becomes less how much I like it and more how much drive I have to get in the water and do it.”
He wants to like the 500. So much so that he tells himself his favorite event during club season is the 1,000. And he believes that right up until the time he has to dive into the water.
“That’s actually my best event right now, the 1,000,” Murray said. “The 1,000 is really fun — until you actually have to do it. It’s a beast to work through.
“The thrill is not many people can do it or decide to do it. Knowing that you are going to do it, that amps you up. Then you get there and watch the first couple of heats and go, ‘Oh, that’s going to be me soon.’ ”
Murray faces a big challenge at sectionals next weekend at Byron. Only one Auburn swimmer in the last 10 years (Mitchell Johnson in 2018) has qualified for state. But Murray hopes a couple of tweaks this year might help him advance.
“He’s always been a hard worker,” Bullard said. “He does what he needs to and then some. He swims his intervals faster than I write them up there. He is the hardest worker I’ve had, if not ever, at least in a long time. He’s motivated.
“His weakness before was his turns. He’s worked on that hard. We’d say he was giving it away on the wall early in the season, losing probably a half-second on every turn. You think it’s simple. Just a turn. But in a distance race, that can be a big difference. He was working a lot harder in the straights and losing it on the walls. Saturday (in the NIC-10 meet), he came off the walls better than the guy next to him.”
For the 200, Murray also competes against sprinters.
“The 200 is a different beast,” he said. “For sprinters, it’s a distance race. For distance swimmers, it’s a full-on sprint. You can tell how someone swims based solely on how they sprint the 200.”
The 500 on the other hand, is so long that Murray doesn’t even think about swimming it while he is in the water. Instead, he imagines singing along with his favorite band as he follows one swimstroke after another for five minutes.
“I’m a huge song listener while I’m swimming,” he said. “I listen to Pink Floyd quite a bit. I know a lot of their songs. Most of them I can’t finish in the span of one 500, but the shorter ones, I can start to sing them. During a race, I will listen to one of the heavier, fast-paced sons. That gives me just a little bit to keep going, keep pushing.”
And keep tolerating the 500 — up to the medal stand.
2024 NIC-10 swim champions and team standings
Hononegah 307, Boylan 214, Harlem 160, Auburn 154, Belvidere Co-op 136, Freeport 119, Guilford 116, East 39, Jefferson 23.
Diving — Tristan Peterson (Freeport) 514.20
200 medley relay — Hononegah (Owen West, Vito Skominas, Cale Miles, Reeve Franklin), 1:41.26
200 freestyle — James Murray (Auburn), 1:50.59
200 IM — Bo Shields (Harlem), 2:02.49
50 freestyle — Owen West (Hononegah), 22.72
100 butterfly — Cale Miles (Hononegah), 55.75
100 freestyle — Bo Shields (Harlem), 49.34
500 freestyle — James Murray (Auburn), 5:08.24
200 freestyle relay — Boylan (Gavin Velazquez, Richie Novak, Ruairi Bulger, Matt Dolan), 1:32.91
100 backstroke — Owen West (Hononegah), 57.02
100 breaststroke — Vito Skominas (Hononegah), 1:03.96
400 freestyle relay — Hononegah (Owen West, Bryson Beck, Cale Miles, Reeve Franklin), 3:23.00
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Why James Murray is the NIC-10's reluctant distance swimming star
