Blood oozed from the cut in Nick Spino's left knee, the product of a run-in with a hurdle at the Baldwin Invitational this past Friday night.

Spino, a senior at Jeannette High School and one of the best hurdlers in the WPIAL this season regardless of classification, clipped a hurdle while running the 110-meter race. The collision would have stopped a lot of hurdlers cold. Not Spino.

It slowed him some, but he gathered himself, shifted gears and almost ran down Matt Courter of Peters Township. Courter finished first in 15.05 seconds, Spino a hair behind at 15.09.

"I started making up ground and I thought I got him with the lean," Spino said after the race. "But he was just too far ahead."

It was the first time this season Spino was beaten in a race involving hurdles. Later that evening at Baldwin, he avenged the defeat by beating Courter and a quality field in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. His time was a school-record 38.82 seconds.

The rest of the top eight in the 300 intermediates were from Class AAA schools, which shouldn't come as a surprise.

Spino is the defending WPIAL Class AA champion in the 110 highs and 300 intermediate hurdles. He is favored to win both races at the WPIAL championships Tuesday at South Side Beaver and add to his collection of gold medals.

He just might be the WPIAL's true golden boy this school year.

Spino was a starting wide receiver on the Jayhawks football team that won WPIAL and PIAA Class AA crowns. And he was a member of the school's basketball team that accomplished the same championship double.

For each team title, Spino and his teammates received a gold medal.

"He wants to be the school's first athlete to get gold medals for winning [PIAA] championships in all three seasons," Jeannette track coach Justin Gogolsky said.

"I've collected a lot of medals, but you always want to strive to do your best," he said. "Second place here [Baldwin Invitational] is good, but I always want to win."

Winning just two PIAA gold medals is an impressive accomplishment. Spino could wind up with four if he adds the 110 and 300 hurdles at the PIAA championships May 23-24 at Shippensburg University to the football and basketball hardware.

Last year, he placed second in the 110s and seventh in the 300s in Class AA at the PIAA meet. Gogolsky believes Spino's best event this year is the 300 intermediates. Spino, who has also run the 100- and 200-meter dashes this spring, said he doesn't have a favorite event.

"He's just stronger than he was [last year]," Gogolsky said. "He was tied for the school record in the 300s with his father, Dave, but he broke that at Baldwin.

"His size is a big reason for his success, but a lot of it is that he's self motivated."

Spino owns the school record in both hurdle events. At the Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships April 26 he won the 110s in 15.01 and then came back to win the 300 intermediates in 39.14. He did that after winning both races the night before at the Mars Invitational.

Obviously, Spino is in shape but he has that something extra that sets him apart. He has an extra gear that kicks in midway through the 110 hurdles and allows him to pull away from the competition.

"I know what you mean. It's hard to describe, but he has it," Gogolsky said.

What's surprising is Spino has been running the hurdles seriously just since his sophomore year. He got into track in eighth grade and ran the hurdles, but played baseball the next year.

"I didn't get to play that much and I decided to stay with track," Spino said. "My dad ran track, my sister ran track and my grandfather ran track so it was a family thing and they all did the hurdles."

As a sophomore, he was second in the 300 intermediates and seventh in the 110s at the WPIAL championships. At the PIAA meet, he just missed making the final in the 300s.

"After that, I didn't want to lose again," he said.

Spino is also a winner in the classroom. He has a 4.2 grade-point average, is one of four WPIAL scholar/athlete award winners this year and will be honored at a luncheon May 19 at the Embassy Suites in Moon.

"With all he's into, he finds time for the books," Gogolsky said.

Spino would like to play football and run track in college. He has talked to coaches at Buffalo, Miami of Ohio and Seton Hill.

He has thought about concentrating on track in college, but doesn't want to cut his ties to football.

"I'll go to the [McKee] stadium and do a workout on my own and then I'll go sit in the bleachers and catch my breath and it's amazing ... I can't remember how many times I pictured myself playing on that field," he said. "So, to walk away [from football] would be hard."

Spino probably won't make a college decision until after the PIAA track championships.

Why?

"I don't want to break my focus," he said. "There'll be time to decide after the season's done."