There was one overriding story line at the WPIAL cross country championships last year: Would Latrobe's Natalie Bower become the first runner to win four consecutive individual titles?

Bower, who now competes for Penn State, didn't disappoint and won the Class AAA girls' race.

This year's championships, which is scheduled for Thursday at Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock, doesn't have a central plot. That doesn't mean the meet, which is scheduled to get under way at 1:45 p.m. with the Class AA girls' race, doesn't have an interesting script.

In the Class AAA boys' race, North Allegheny will be looking for a "five-peat." At the same time, Baldwin will be trying to unseat the Tigers and win its first WPIAL cross country title since 1999.

Rad Gunzenhauser of Mt. Lebanon has been the favorite to win the Class AAA boys' individual title since he won the Red, White & Blue Classic at Schenley Park Sept. 12. North Allegheny's Ryan Gil appears to be the top challenger after finishing third at the WPIAL championships last year.

In the Class AA boys' competition, Quaker Valley is looking for a "three-peat" and wants to make a little history in so doing. Last year, the Quakers' Omar Hyjek finished first with teammate John Yankello third. That's impressive but they would like to improve on that ... a lot.

"One of their goals is to take the top four places," Quaker Valley coach Dave Noyes said.

It's hard to imagine a team doing that at any level at the championships, but the Quakers might be able to pull it off. At the Midwestern Athletic Conference championships last week on a Brush Creek Park course that's tougher than the 3.1-mile layout at Cooper's Lake, Quaker Valley runners finished first (Yankello), third (Hyjek), fourth (Nat Fox), seventh (Mike Ryan), 11th (L.J. Westwood) and 14th (Andrew Hotchkiss).

In the Class AAA girls' competition Norwin appears to be a cut above and is looking for its first WPIAL team title. The Knights have been one of the top-ranked teams in the state by PenntrackXC.com all season.

It will be interesting to see who will follow Bower as the WPIAL individual champion. Norwin's Jenna Gigliotti was second last year, but she finished behind Hampton's Elaina Balouris at the Red, White & Blue Classic. Peters Township's Kayla Keddal, Blackhawk's Angelica Peck and Bethel Park's Hillary Boxheimer figure to be in the hunt along with North Hills sisters Margo and Shannon Malone.

"We had something like four meets in eight days and I could tell it was starting to wear on the kids," Norwin coach Geary Tray said. "So, we've kind of gone into the training mode and haven't been racing as much."

With that in mind the Norwin girls were at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association championship yesterday at Cooper's Lake, but didn't compete.

"I left it up to them and they said they'd rather not race it," Tray said. "Our boys are going to run it and the girls will go, but they'll just do a workout."

In the Class AA girls' race, Shady Side Academy's Katrina Jueng is the defending champion and the Indians won the team title last year. Both are favored to repeat.

The top four teams in each race and the top 20 individual finishers who are not members of one of those four teams advance to the PIAA championships Nov. 7 in Hershey.

There will probably be more yelling and screaming by fans and coaches during the WPIAL Class AAA boys' race. That's because the favorites -- North Allegheny and Baldwin -- are not that much stronger than other contenders such as Mt. Lebanon, North Hills, Hempfield and Canon-McMillan.

"The way the schedule has worked out, it seems as if we've had some extra time to train lately and that's been good for us," North Allegheny coach John Neff said.

"I know Baldwin is strong, we know all about North Hills and there are some other pretty good teams out there like Mt. Lebanon. But we've been coming on and I think our guys are ready for the challenge."

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