PITTSBURGH--The Hood College women's swimming team is well on its way to defending its Atlantic Women's Colleges Conference title after sweeping all nine events on the opening day of the 2006 AWCC Championships Saturday at Chatham College.

The Blazers, who also captured the AWCC title in 2003, finished the day atop the standings with 147 points. The final eight events of the championship meet will be contested Sunday, and Hood is on pace to surpass last year's winning total of 223 points.

"All of our swimmers had a great meet today," Hood head coach Don Feinberg said. "We're way ahead of the point total we thought we'd have after the first day."

Sophomore Amy Kaufman, last year's AWCC Most Outstanding Swimmer, defended her titles in the 400-yard individual medley (season-best 5:05.71), the 200-yard butterfly (2:32.13) and the 500-yard freestyle (5:32.49). She was also a member of Hood's winning 200-yard medley relay team that set an AWCC championship meet record with a time of 2:00.31.

Fellow sophomore Lenore Brown, the 2005 AWCC Rookie of the Year, also enjoyed a stellar day. She defended her titles in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke and was on the two winning relay teams. She captured the freestyle in 2:06.78 and came back minutes later to set a conference record in the backstroke in 1:05.52.

Brown also led off the winning 200-yard medley relay and was a member of the 200-yard freestyle relay team that took home the title in 1:49.34, just .19 seconds shy of the conference championship record.

Sophomore Katie Hitchens won her second straight conference crown in the 50-yard freestyle (26.70) and was part of two first-place relay teams. Freshman Sarah Haney captured the 100-yard breaststroke in a personal-best 1:15.09 and was on the two winning relay teams as well.

Freshman Ashley Garyn was on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay and placed third in the 200-yard freestyle. Freshman Danielle Sgro was third in the 400-yard individual medley and the 500-yard freestyle.