Milpitas High School's swimming team has posted some if its fastest individual and relay times of the season heading into the league tournament for the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. Coach Rocky Pagan said that both the boys and girls teams performed well in narrow defeats to Wilcox High School of Santa Clara on May 1.

"The (outcome for the) girls came down to the last few events, before Wilcox was able to pull it out," Pagan said.

The team used the meet to place many of its girls into the events that they will be swimming in post-season tournaments.

Sophomore Ashley Andrews cut four seconds off of her time in the 100-yard fly, going from 1:17 to 1:13.

"(Andrews) didn't hold anything back. She just went out there and let everything go and had a great swim."

Junior Michelle Pham took 14 seconds off of her time in the 500-yard free.

Pagan said that the girls team "really came into their own in the last two meets."

He particularly credited the girls 400-yard free relay team of Andrews, senior Jessica Oliveras, sophomore Paxton Lund-Hayes and freshman Caroline Zhang for finishing the season strong.

The league tournament is at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, where qualifying races took place yesterday and continue today. The top 16 finishers in each event advance to the league finals tomorrow, where they can earn points for their team's season total.

Though the Trojans will send a handful of swimmers to the more

prestigious Central Coast Section tournament next week at Stanford University, Pagan said the league tournament is the squad's focus, because it is a team event.

The boys 400-yard relay team of junior Peter Dang, sophomore Kelvin Shing, and freshmen Tung Nguyen and Gideon Hou has already qualified for the CCS tournament, which requires relay teams or individuals to beat a pre-determined time to participate. Hou also qualified in the 100-yard breaststroke individual event. Pagan said that Dang and Shing have come close to qualifying in the 100-yard breaststroke, and Hou has come close in the 100-yard fly.

He added that the boys 200-yard free relay team could qualify for the CCS meet by shaving just .5 seconds off of its time at the league tournament this week.