Heading into the winter, Knoch High School senior Carol Cress had a tough decision to make.

A basketball player since kindergarten, she was being forced to consider abandoning the sport for her senior year.

"It was really hard," Cress said. "It probably took three or four months to figure out what I wanted to do. I had stayed with the same girls in basketball every year."

The choice had less to do with Cress' abilities or affinity for the game than it did her prodigious talent as a thrower in track and field.

The reigning WPIAL Class AAA shot put champion, Cress wanted to focus on her throwing skills in order to achieve more as a senior and earn notice from colleges in the hopes of throwing at the next level.

The best way to improve was to compete on an indoor track team. So Cress and a few other Knoch athletes gathered, got some coaches to volunteer their time and competed throughout the winter on the Tri-State Track Coaches indoor track circuit.

"It came down to it being more than just me," Cress said. "I had teammates who wanted to do indoor track, so it was a promise to them as well as to myself."

Although Cress missed playing basketball this past winter, it is difficult to argue with her decision.

She has the longest reported shot put throw in the WPIAL this season at 41 feet, 11 1/2 inches heading into the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships today at Baldwin High School.

"I think the confidence factor with her has really grown in the past year," Knoch girls' track coach Tom Hoffmann said. "Going to the [PIAA championship meet] last year, coming into this year she worked hard in winter track and on her own. She went to states in indoors and she's thrown a 41.

"She's been very, very consistent all year."

This season, Cress also improved her javelin and discus throwing and qualified for the WPIAL championships in those events, too, with hopes of advancing in the PIAA meet.

Her top reported javelin toss of 119 feet, 10 inches is ranked eighth among those reported in the WPIAL. She has the 12th-farthest reported discus throw at 109 feet, 1 inch.

Cress, who has been mentored by throwing coaches Judy Geist and Scott Taylor, will be competing at the college level next season. She said Division I Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and California University of Pennsylvania are among her top choices.

Cress said her goals for the WPIAL meet today were to set new personal records.

"The big difference this year as opposed to last year is she really put more emphasis on training," Knoch track coach Wess Brahler said.

"She actually competed all winter this year in events and went all the way through, competing at a high level."

Cress isn't the only Knoch athlete with a shot at a WPIAL championship today.

Ten members of Knoch's boys' team will compete in seven different events at Baldwin, and five other Knoch female athletes besides Cress will compete in eight events in their quest for a WPIAL title or qualifying for the PIAA championships.

The boys who qualified for the WPIAL meet are the 3,200-meter relay team of Brian Tackett, Mike Fugate, Paul Kletzli and Owen Venesky; the 1,600-meter relay team of Vince Moxie, Mitch Shaw, Steve Snow and Tackett; Shaw, a sophomore, in the 400-meter run; Tackett, a junior, in the 800-meter run; senior Zac Gross in the javelin; junior C.J. Wise in the high jump and triple jump and junior Dylan Beck in the triple jump.

The six Knoch girls competing at Baldwin today are three sets of sisters.

Sophomore Alyson Cress, Carol's younger sibling, will throw the shot put, sophomore Regina Robb in the 100-meter hurdles, Sarah Robb in the triple jump and high jump, freshman Jolene Kunkel in the 3,200-meter run and junior Alyssa Kunkel in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.

Regina Robb has the fourth-fastest reported time in the 100 hurdles (14.9 seconds) and has a good chance of qualifying for the PIAA meet.

Jolene Kunkel ranks ninth in the 3,200 run (11.28.6). Allyson Cress has the 16th-best recorded shot put throw at 35 feet, 1 1/4 inches.

Among the boys, Tackett is seeded second in the 800 run.

"We'd like to see all our athletes perform well and get a chance at a medal," Brahler said.