The swim and dive team has high hopes for the upcoming season after coming off a fantastic season last year when the boys ended their regular season undefeated, the girls had a record of 5-1, and the girls came off in third place at Metros.
The team graduated many significant seniors last year, including Chris Verboncoeur who swims for Virginia Tech and Alex Stanton who dives for Harvard University.
“We lost a lot of seniors last year,” swim and dive coach Rodney Van Tassell said. “They were probably the best class of boys and girls we’ve had since I’ve been coaching, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have high expectations for this upcoming season.”  
According to Van Tassell, the secret to the school’s swimming and diving success is a combination of good leadership, depth and team spirit. The swim captains this year are seniors Emily Hall, Yvonne Huo, Brian Xiao and Michael Pratt, and the dive captain is junior Timothy Faerber.
Depth on the team, meaning each event has more than one strong Bulldog competing in it, is the true driving force behind the team’s victories.
“You can be a good team with just a few superstars, but you can’t be a great team without depth and a lot of role players,” Van Tassell said. “[Depth and role players] is what we have.”