With thick, flowing locks dangling from his head, you could call Baldwin junior T.J. Hobart the mane man.

Well, in the WPIAL 1,600-meter run, he has turned into something else -- the main man.

Hobart used a home-track advantage to perfection, clocking a time of 4:17.71 and edging Highlanders teammate Dave Adley (4:18.44) in one of the highlights yesterday at the WPIAL Class AAA individual track and field championships at Baldwin High School.

The 1,600-meter victory was one of two gold medals Hobart collected, as he also was part of a gold-winning 3,200-meter relay squad.

"I love running here," Hobart said. "I come out here on this track, at my school, and I look up and all my friends and my family are up there watching me. For me, there isn't a better situation than to run well on the track here at Baldwin."

Hobart's day started off on the right foot. He ran a lightning-quick anchor leg on Baldwin's 3,200-relay team. George Crompton ran the first leg solidly, Dennis Logan followed him, Adley ran a strong third leg and then Hobart blistered through the final 800 meters to give Baldwin a first-place finish at 7:54.83.

If Hobart was the king of the distances yesterday, Latrobe junior Natalie Bower was the unquestioned queen.

Bower, a three-time WPIAL cross country champion, turned in quite a performance of her own, winning the 1,600 in 5:02.59 and the 3,200 in 11:01.45.

To go along with her individual effort, Bower helped propel the Latrobe 3,200 girls' relay team to gold and a meet record. Latrobe turned in a 9:19.43, as the quartet of Abby Hewitt, Lizzy Harkins, Nicole Egan and Bower bested a meet record that had been set by Butler in 1999.

The Norwin 1,600 girls' relay team consisting of Amanda Cotherman, Alison Mols, Shelby Haitz and Shannon Abraham not only set a meet record with 3:52.92, but also ran the fastest time in WPIAL history.

Meanwhile, the 100-meter dash provided one expected result and one surprise.

In the girls' 100, Woodland Hills senior star Cambrya Jones came in right where many anticipated, breezing to a victory in 12.11 seconds, 43 hundredths of a second faster than Aleesha Washington of Laurel Highlands. Jones also won the 200, finishing in 24.59, almost a full second ahead of the nearest competitor.

"I think a lot of people expected me to win, and there is some pressure that comes with that," said Jones, a Pitt recruit. "I ran OK. I didn't run the best I could have. But anytime you can win, you have to take a positive from that."

As expected as Jones' win was, that is just about how unexpected the victory in the boys' 100 was for North Allegheny junior Brian Austin, who turned in a 10.92 to capture gold.

"The beginning of the year, no, I didn't think I could be here right now," said Austin, also a football player at North Allegheny. "My start is my best thing and, a lot of times, I get caught after the halfway point. This time, I didn't."

Also in girls' competition, Moon junior Layne Baggett continued to dazzle, winning the 100-meter hurdles for the third consecutive year.

The boys' javelin served as a decent-sized upset, as Canon-McMillan's Zane Zebrasky captured gold with an effort of 201 feet, 8 inches, setting a new meet record in the process. Zebrasky's throw was greater than 7 feet beyond that of second-place finisher Ryan Schleicher of Baldwin, who came in as the top seed.

The top four finishers in each event automatically qualify for the PIAA championships May 23-24 at Shippensburg University. Any individual or relay team who met the state qualifying standard yesterday also earned a spot in the PIAA meet.