The defending BVAL Champion swimming and diving team at Clayton Valley is ready to defend their title this season.

“[Winning] will take strong dedication and 100 percent effort,” said co-Head Coach Matt Chamberlain. “I know my team can do it.”

This season is going to be a lot like last year, according to Chamberlain.

The boys will have an easy time defending their title, but the girls will have a difficult time swimming against Liberty High School.

In their meet against Carondelet, De La Salle and Antioch on March 18, CV swam strong, but only managed a win over Antioch.

Carondelet was missing a few of their best athletes, but CV still lost by 11 points. The boys team lost to DLS by a larger margin.

On Sat. March 12, the Eagles traveled to the Fairfield Relays.

Known as a fun event, the Fairfield Relays gave CV a chance to improve upon their first meet.

“We definitely improved compared to our Freedom match,” said Chamberlain.

In an all-senior 8x25 freestyle relay, where each member swims one lap, CV was able to break a record.

Christine Richards, Mat Zefeldt, Kayla Zeidler, Collin Lee, Kristen Langford, Nick Keenan, Lindsay Kiyama and Fran Galan comprised the record-breaking relay team.

In their first meet of the season against the Freedom Falcons, the boys and girls swimming team had an easy time overcoming the competition.

“Freedom is a growing team and we knew we were going to win,” said Chamberlain.

The coaching staff’s goal was to try new people in different events.

“The first meet is always a test,” said Chamberlain.

This year was also the return of the second annual Clayton Valley High School Nike Invitational.

This is the only meet in the state of California where the junior varsity teams are the only ones competing.

There were many schools represented including Campolindo, Northgate, Liberty, Ygnacio Valley, De La Salle, Carondelet and Antioch.