Story and Photo by Marcus Tolero

The CCSF Women’s Swim team heads into this week’s Coast Conference Championships at Ohlone College with a swell of momentum on their side.

The Rams are coming off one of the best regular seasons in the program’s history, a season that saw numerous school records shattered and a relay team that ranked among one of the best in the state.

Head Coach Phong Pham said that the success of the regular season should carry over into the conference championships.

“We’re looking good in preparation for the conference championships – the last three weeks have been going well. We’re looking to have strong performances and, hopefully, we will finish it (conference championships) in the top three,” Pham said.

Pham’s confidence heading into the playoff week is justified by the talent that is on his squad.

The relay team of freshmen Ashley Davis, Sophia Greco, Alika Lew-Koga, and Katie Magers became the school’s first-ever 200-freestyle relay team to rank in the top 12 in the state. They also broke a CCSF school record when they posted a time of 1:45.28 at the Cuesta College Swim Invitational, besting the 1:45.98 mark set in 2012.

In individual events, Greco and Davis have led the way for the Rams. Greco had a historic regular season. She broke four school records in the 500-yard freestyle, 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke, and 100-yard backstroke. Davis was a consistent performer for the Rams. She won multiple events throughout the year, and in the last regular-season match at the Last Chance Invite at Chabot College, she finished in second place in the 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard fly, and 100-yard fly.

“We have several events that we have a good chance to finish in the top three or capture a conference championship. I think we will do well in the 200 backstroke, 200 fly, and 400 individual medley,” Pham said.

The Rams have had close to two weeks off to prepare for this week’s meet, and Pham has used the long layoff to his advantage.

“We wanted to improve the team’s endurance so we started to add more distance drills, and we added more sprinting drills. We also continued to work on starts and turns,” Pham said. “As we get closer to the meet, we will start tapering off on the yardages so that the team is rested and ready to go.”

The three-day Coast Conference Championships start this Thursday at Ohlone College.