Coming off a great season at regional and state championships last year, the CHS swim and dive team hopes to continue their success this season.

Last season, the girls’ swim and dive team was division one and regional champions; the boys team placed second at regionals and states.

“This year, my most important goal is to score enough points for the team along with the other swimmers and divers to help keep up our winning streak,” sophomore Robert Rizzo said.

Having a wide variety of swimmers and divers on the team is important to the team’s success. This way, all athletes on the team will be able to grow and learn from each other’s techniques and accomplishments.

According to head coach Christopher Tappis, ambition accounts for the team’s unity and spirit as a whole. On Fridays before meets, the team has dress up days with themes such as 80s workout and superheroes.

The incoming freshman are bringing more talent to the team. Freshmen like Daniel Nagard, Gaoxing Cosgrove, Noah Rutberg and Maya Fischer all have AAAA times in different swimming events such as 50 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke. An AAAA time is the highest standard time in a certain age group.

“A lot of really strong boy and girl incoming freshmen swimmers will be on the team,” Tappis said. “The biggest role as a coach for them is being a motivator and supporter.”

Support from teammates has a major impact on a swimmer’s success, since it helps motivate and encourage swimmers to perform their best during competitions, and the bulldogs hope to have spirit and positive energy this upcoming season.

“I would like to try my best and do what’s good for the team as a whole,” Rutberg said. “To contribute, I would have to listen to my coach, my captains and work hard. Hopefully doing all these things will help me accomplish my goals.”

The boys swim team’s hopes to win regional and metro championships this year. Nonetheless, it’s important to know that winning is not the only goal as having fun is also important.

“When I joined the CHS swim team last year, I was so excited I got to make some new friends and I knew I was finally apart of something at CHS,” sophomore Jordan Storch said. “The team isn’t just about winning, it’s about coming together and having a good time while showing support for your fellow peers.”

This year, leading the swim team are senior captains Emily Wang, Hanan Bandak, Matt Tiberino and Zack Einhorn.

“As a captain, I want to bring a sense of joy and pride to the members of CHS Swim and Dive,” Tiberino said. “On the swim team, I want to elevate the morale and lead our swimmers to the top of Division One.”

Mory Gould, the state and metro champion diver last season, will lead the dive team this year as captain. The top divers from last season, Brighid Dunn and Elaina Faerber, graduated, leaving this year’s dive team with work to overcome this deficit.

“As a team, I would like to have all of our divers place in the top twenty in all of the postseason meets,” Gould said. “I hope the divers can give our swim team an edge by scoring points. Last year at the metro meet, our men’s swim team started with a sixty five point head start after the diving events and I hope to do the same this year.”

As the swim and dive team veterans join with the new members of the team, they will strive for success to win the title of regional and state champions