Let's get this out of the way at the very beginning: Natalie Bower is not a one-sport wonder.

OK, so everybody knows Bower from her record-setting runs in cross country and track the past four school years at Greater Latrobe High School. But what most people don't know is that she is also an accomplished swimmer who earned varsity letters in that sport as well.

Bower graduated from Latrobe last month with 12 varsity letters and is one of only a handful of athletes from Latrobe to collect that many monograms. All of which made selecting Bower as the PG East Edition Female High School Athlete of the Year as easy as, well, a jog through the park.

The athletes of the year are selected by the Post-Gazette scholastic sports staff. Others under consideration for the PG East Edition were Leslie Kovach of Norwin, Samantha Pickens of Franklin Regional, Andrea Marko of Greensburg Central Catholic and Joelle Kissell of Latrobe.

While Baldwin High School graduate Carole Zajac Tynan, who went on to have an outstanding career at Villanova, will forever be known as the first lady of distance running in the WPIAL, Bower has to be considered a close second after what she accomplished this season and in her career.

In the fall, Bower became the first WPIAL runner to win four consecutive individual titles in cross country. That record can be tied, but will never be broken.

This past spring, she punctuated her high school career by winning the 1,600-meter run -- which she likes to call "her race" -- at the PIAA Class AAA championships at Shippensburg University. She did that after winning the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in record times at the WPIAL championships at Baldwin.

In all, she won 12 individual WPIAL gold medals -- eight in track and four in cross country -- and picked up a couple more by helping Latrobe to WPIAL Class AAA cross country team titles in 2005, '07 and last year.

A PIAA gold medal had eluded her -- she finished fourth in cross country at the PIAA level three years in a row -- until this year. She took care of that by leading the race at Shippensburg from start to finish.

"I was actually mad at myself before that race that I hadn't won [a PIAA gold medal] before," Bower said. "I just decided I was going to run my race and go out to win instead or running not to lose."

When asked if everything she has accomplished in athletics in high school has hit her yet, she replied, in typical modest fashion, "A little bit I guess. My dad asked me the other day if I ever thought all of this would happen when I was running 5Ks when I was 13. I realize I've accomplished a lot ... once I get up to Penn State maybe it will all hit me."

Maybe, but one of Bower's strengths, and perhaps the reason she has excelled in track and cross country, is that she has never considered herself above the team. And she has never been one to look back and sulk when something hasn't gone as expected.

Her focus has always been on the miles or meters or yards in front of her, on improving her times and on helping her team win.

For example:

• Bower knew before the WPIAL track championships ended in May that one of the races she would run at the PIAA finals was the 3,200-meter relay with her teammates. She never considered running two individual races at the PIAA meet.

• She would like to continue to run the 1,600 at the college level but realizes Penn State coaches might have other plans for her. "They might want me to do longer distances," Bower said. "If that's what they want, I'll be fine with it."

She is already into the summer running program Penn State has provided. Bower does her workouts between stints as a lifeguard at Latrobe Country Club.

"I've been running six days a week, putting in about 40 to 45 miles a week," she said. "They want you to show up in shape and fresh at Penn State. I'm looking forward to it."

As for going from being one of the top runners in the WPIAL and the state to just another freshman on the Penn State squad, Bower doesn't have a problem with starting over at the bottom. She still remembers what it was like to be a freshman on the cross country team at Latrobe.

"I still remember how I looked up to the older kids," she said. "I'm sure it will be the same way at Penn State."

There is a difference, however. Bower was just a fresh-faced kid who had run well in local road races as a Latrobe ninth grader. Now, she's a mature individual with a golden resume.