AT THE RACES

What: WPIAL cross country championships.

When: Today.

Where: Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock. For directions, go to www.cooperslake.com

Race times: 1:45 p.m., Class AA girls; 2:30 p.m., Class AAA girls; 3:15 p.m., Class AA boys; 4 p.m., Class AAA boys.

The skinny: In each race, the top four teams and top 20 individuals who are not on one of the top four teams qualify for the PIAA championships Nov. 3 in Hershey.

Baldwin High School cross country coach Rich Wright has set up his school's course as a primer for the 3.1-mile test at Cooper's Lake Campground, site of today's WPIAL championships.

"We kind of imitate the course at our place to give our kids the best advantage we can ... how the course rolls and we work on it," he said.

It appears to have paid off for David Adley, not that he needed any more of an advantage than his God-given talent to run fast over a long distance.

Adley, a senior at Baldwin, cruised to a first-place finish at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association championships a week ago at Cooper's Lake and stamped himself as the favorite to win the Class AAA boys' title today.

The championships will begin at 1:45 p.m. with the Class AA girls' race. The Class AAA boys' race will be the last one of the day beginning at 4.

Adley's time at the Tri-State meet was 16 minutes, 16 seconds, the sixth-fastest time on that course. Gateway's Daniel Krystek was second in 16:27.

What gave Adley the edge was he pulled away on the long downhill stretches. That's something he has been working on.

"As much as you can, you want to take advantage of the downhills and let them work for you," he said. "There's no use fighting it, you want it [gravity] to be your friend on a course like this."

Baldwin coaches have always stressed the importance of pushing the downhill parts of a race.

"That goes back to when my son Ricky ran with Carole Zajac," Wright said. "They went to Edinboro to a camp and they taught them how to run downhill back in 1988. We thought if it was good enough for Carole Zajac, every kid in Baldwin could learn from it.

"I still have the posters somewhere that Ricky and Carole made, showing how to run downhill in a windmill fashion."

The Tri-State Track Coaches Association meet was the sixth invitational Adley has won this year. He said a reason for his outstanding season is that he has stopped fighting himself.

"That's been the key to my season, not putting pressure on myself," he said. "My freshman, sophomore and junior years, I put so much pressure on myself I almost made myself sick. This year, it's my last year and I'm more mature and I don't worry about it as much."

He is sure to have plenty of challengers today. Cam Stauffer and Chris Cipro of Seneca Valley, Canon-McMillan's Julian Rankin and Kyle Gibson, Krystek and North Allegheny's Matt Jacob are all more than capable. So is Baldwin teammate T.J. Hobart.

Adley not only has outstanding endurance, he is blessed with good speed. If it comes down to a sprint at the end, he's confident he'll get to the finish line first.

"Yeah, against pretty much anybody except T.J.," he said. "I don't think I can beat him."

Hobart also has run well at times this season, but has been bothered by asthma. He was in the lead during the early part of the Tri-State race, then fell back. Wright said Hobart could challenge Adley if the conditions are right.

As for the Baldwin boys' team, the Highlanders are on the bubble for a spot in the PIAA championships. The top four teams in each race at the WPIAL championships advance to the PIAA meet Nov. 3 in Hershey.

It's a good bet North Allegheny and Seneca Valley are going to finish one-two. That leaves Mt. Lebanon, North Hills, Canon-McMillan, Norwin, Gateway and Baldwin to battle for the other two spots.

"If our young kids get their act together, we have a shot," Wright said. "We were only two points out of fourth [at the Tri-State], so we have a chance."

AROUND THE COURSE: Upper St. Clair's Phil Young, a junior, was 11th at the Tri-State meet. ... Senior Sam Apke was Mt. Lebanon's top runner and placed 22nd. ... In the girls' race at the Tri-State Track Coaches meet, Peters Township's Kayla Keddal, a sophomore, was fifth and Mt. Lebanon sophomore Samantha Carl was 10th. ... Mt. Lebanon was third behind North Allegheny and Latrobe in the team standings. ... The Mt. Lebanon girls are going after their third WPIAL title since 2002.