ST. MARY'S CITY, Md.--Senior Matt Haynes of the Hood College men's swim team lowered his own school record and qualified for the championship finals in the 50 free Friday on day one of the 2009 Capital Athletic Conference championships at the ARC Aquatics Center on the campus of St. Mary's College (Md.)

Haynes bested his 50 free record in the morning prelim session with a time of 22.25, 0.08 seconds faster than his clocking against Marymount on Oct. 24, 2007. Haynes was seeded in a three-way tie for fifth in the evening finals where he went on to post a time of 22.29, good for eighth place.

Kyle Atras placed 26th in the 500 free with a time if 6:34.60, a season-best by nearly 16 seconds. Chris Moreland was 15th in the 200 IM and lowered his season-best by close to five seconds with a time of 2:07.71. Three other Blazers competed in the 50 free - Chris Nemecek (22nd, 23.60), AJ Smith (29th, 29.26) and Thomas Williams (30th, 31.38).

The 200 free relay squad of Chris Nemecek, Thomas Williams, A.J. Smith and Kyle Atras placed seventh in 1:52.09. Additionally, Haynes, Moreland, Nemecek and Atras comprised the 400 medley relay squad which took sixth in a season-best time of 4:03.11.

The Blazers are in sixth place after the first day of racing, 13 points ahead of Gallaudet University. The second day of preliminary action gets underway at 10 a.m. Saturday.