There have been mini-dynasties in the WPIAL over the years.

Washington High School was a power in boys' basketball in Class AA in the mid 1980s. Peters Township was the boys' soccer team to beat in the late 1980s. And Baldwin was the softball kingpin in the early and mid 1990s.

Now, at least in the Washington County area, comes the Canon-McMillan High School track team.

The Big Macs have dominated the Washington-Greene County Coaches Meet in recent years. Two weeks ago, they won the boys' team title for a 10th consecutive year and the girls' championship for the fifth year in a row.

OK, so Canon-McMillan is the largest school, enrollment-wise, at the meet. But 10 years in a row for the boys and five for the girls?

"We've been fortunate to have some good individuals," coach Mike Koot said.

True, but the Big Macs work at being good.

Canon-McMillan takes the indoor track season more seriously than most schools. This past winter, the Big Macs won the Tri-State Track Coaches Association boys' team title at Robert Morris University, edging Erie McDowell, 69-55.

Winning when there's snow on the ground has a carry-over affect.

"We have kids who are involved in other sports and that's good," Koot said. "But if they aren't involved in a winter sport, we expect them to show up for [indoor track] practices."

Indoor workouts aren't as demanding, but do lay the groundwork for the spring. The Big Macs spend a lot of time in the weight room during the winter.

"We haven't had many injuries in the spring in recent years and some of that might come from the conditioning we get indoors," Koot said. "Our kids are in pretty good shape when the [outdoor] season comes around."

Canon-McMillan's boys' team finished the dual-meet season with a 7-1 overall record, 4-1 in Section 5, and qualified for the Class AAA team tournament. The Big Macs won at Norwin Wednesday against Norwin, Uniontown and Mount Pleasant and advanced to the team finals.

Leading the way again this season is senior Jeravin Matthews, who is headed to Northwestern University on a football scholarship but might try to help the track team there.

At the Washington-Greene County Coaches meet, Matthews won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes and the long jump. He was the meet's MVP and could easily do well in a couple other events if he wasn't limited to four.

"He's the first one I've had who could probably handle more than four events at a meet," Koot said. "At the qualifiers, he's probably going to run the 200 and the 400, a leg on the 1,600 relay and the long jump."

The long jump just might be his best event. He went 22 feet, 9 inches at the county coaches meet, setting a record in the process. He was fifth in the long jump and sixth in the 200 at last year's WPIAL championships.

Matthews is bigger, stronger and faster this year.

"He's better in the longer sprints," Koot said. "In the 100 if you make a mistake, that's it. In the 200 and the 400 there's time to make up for any errors."

Canon-McMillan is hardly a one-man team, however. The Big Macs are solid in every area.

In Kyle Gibson and Julian Rankin, they have talented distance runners. Chris McClellan has done well in the hurdles and Teddy Mathis has been just a step behind Matthews in the sprints.

In the past, the throwing events hasn't been a team strength. This year, the throwers have more than held there own. Nick Hanley won the shot put and discus at the county coaches meet and was the field MVP, and teammate Zane Zebrasky was first in the javelin.

"We don't have any big names in the throws, but we have guys who get us points. Instead of being swept 9-0 [in a throwing event in a duel meet] it might be 5-4 or we win it 5-4."

The only loss for the boys' team during the regular season was to powerful Baldwin, 76¹/₂-73¹/₂. Koot said he went back over the results and pinpointed a number of places the Big Macs could have picked up points.

"We've matched up pretty well with everybody this year," he said.

As for the girls' team, Koot was thrilled with its 5-3 overall record and 3-2 mark in the section.

"And one of those losses was to North Hills in a meet where we had five or six of our better girls on a field trip to Washington, D.C.," he said. "They might have been good for 30-plus points and we lost by 10."

The girls' squad is also young. Koot said he sent the underclassmen to a junior varsity meet at Peters Township recently and was left with seven girls for the varsity practice.

Chelsea Zahn won the shot put and the discus at the county coaches meet and senior Libby Guyton excels in the sprints and the jumps. Cassie Allen is another senior who has performed well. Hurdler Taylor Parisse is another of the talented underclassmen.

"There is no way at the start of the season I thought the girls' team would go 5-3," Koot said. "We have a great group of underclassmen and we have a solid eighth-grade group coming. I don't think the girls' team is going to get anything but stronger."