One more lap around the district high school track scene:

The WPIAL Track and Field Steering Committee will meet Wednesday and will probably recommend that Baldwin High School Stadium remain as the site for the combined Class AAA and AA individual championships in 2010.

The league conducted its individual championships at one site -- Baldwin -- and on the same day for the first time this season since the PIAA went to two classifications in track.

The meet attracted a nice crowd despite some iffy weather and was called a success by a number of parties.

"From the aspect of the athletes and the coaches, it was an overwhelming success," WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley said. "The big issue goes to parking [for fans], but Baldwin might help us out some with that next year by not having school that day. If they can do it, that would help solve the problem some."

The crowd in the stands was better than it has been in past years when only the Class AAA championship took place at Baldwin. And if it had been a nice afternoon and evening -- there were off-and-on showers during the meet -- attendance would have been even better.

The competition did not run as long as some thought it might. The meet ended around 9:30 p.m. after starting at 1 p.m. Running finals began about 4 p.m.

"I think everything ran smoothly," said Ed Helbig, Baldwin track coordinator and a member of the WPIAL track committee. "I said we'd be cleaning up right around 9:30 p.m. ... and we were."

"We'll talk about [the championship meet] at the meeting, but there has been nothing but positive feedback," O'Malley said.

Sprinters from Aliquippa have received a lot of attention in recent years, and rightfully so. The Quips have produced some fast individuals such as Jonathan Baldwin, now a wide receiver at Pitt, and Tommie Campbell.

But the fastest guy in the Beaver County area this season was down the road from Aliquippa.

Center High School senior Chris Kimbrough usually got the better of his Aliquippa counterparts. He placed second in the 100, third in the 200, helped the Trojans' 1,600-meter relay team to a second-place finish and the 400 relay to fourth place at the WPIAL Class AA championships.

At the PIAA meet in Shippensburg, Kimbrough was sixth in the 100 in 11.11 seconds and helped the 1,600 relay to a seventh-place finish.

Along the way this season, he set a school record in the 200 and helped the 1,600 relay to a school record time of 3:27.8.

"He's very fast, there's no doubt about that," Center coach Craig Whipkey said. "He pretty much did four events for us every meet, but he's such a good athlete we could have plugged him into a couple more if we were allowed.

"I'd say the 200 was his best race because of his straightaway speed. He's just a great kid who was painfully quiet at times. He started to open some this season and he had a dry sense of humor."

Kimbrough, who is also a standout running back in football, managed his outstanding season despite adding 15 to 20 pounds of muscle for football.

Often the added weight slows a sprinter.

"It didn't affect him that much," Whipkey said. "He worked hard on his starts to make them better."

Often the best stories at the PIAA championships are ones involving athletes who don't win gold medals.

Tabitha Bemis had one of those stories.

A junior at Quaker Valley High School, Bemis is an outstanding athlete who won the Class AA triple jump last year as a sophomore and placed third in the 100-meter hurdles and fourth in the long jump at the WPIAL championships.

Competing in gymnastics this past winter, Bemis sustained a dislocated right elbow and a torn ligament and that kept her sidelined in track until April. At first, she was allowed to practice and compete in only jumping events. Her doctor didn't want her to trip on a hurdle and take a tumble on the injured arm.

She didn't begin doing any type of hurdle drills until the end of April and didn't run a competitive 100-meter hurdles race until the South Fayette Invitational May 2.

So, it was something of a remarkable comeback that she ended up second in the 100 hurdles at the WPIAL Class AA championships and placed sixth in the event at the PIAA championships.

"I'd say remarkable is the right word," Quaker Valley coach Jerry Veshio said. "We didn't even think she'd be able to run the hurdles, but once she got the OK, we said 'Let's do some drills on the hurdles.'

"It helped that we had Eve Bowers, a freshman hurdler, who Tabitha was helping to mentor. She started doing the drills with Eve and we ended up getting Tabitha into a couple meets at the end of the season. But she really didn't run the hurdles hard until South Fayette and she ran a 15.9 and that's when we decided to let her run them in the qualifier."

There's more. Last year at the Baldwin Invitational, Bemis fell running the 100 hurdles. This year the WPIAL finals were at Baldwin, so she was racing on the track where she had a bad experience with minimal practice.

"She showed a lot of courage," Veshio said.

Bemis also was second in the triple jump and fourth in the long jump at the WPIAL meet. At the PIAA championships, she was the top WPIAL finisher in the 100 hurdles (sixth place) and was fourth in the triple jump.

"Just her getting there [PIAA meet] and getting a medal was amazing considering everything," Veshio said. "We've gone up there with 20 kids and come away with just one medal, so we know that getting a medal up there isn't easy."