The North Allegheny boys' cross country team was one of the top-ranked squads in the state at the start of the past school year for a good reason. The Tigers had most of their top runners returning from a WPIAL Class AAA championship team.

They didn't disappoint, even though the Tigers didn't win a PIAA team title.

North Allegheny was third behind North Penn and Coatesville in Hershey after taking a third consecutive WPIAL title.

Thing are a little different this year.

With the graduation of Matt Jacobs, Justin Taylor and Dan O'Brien, the team's top three finishers at the WPIAL championships, not as much is expected from the Tigers.

Well, at least not much from outside observers.

At North Allegheny, however, the expectations are the same.

"We think we're going to be a pretty good team again," NA coach Jim LeDonne said. "To be honest, I haven't looked to see if we're ranked or not.

"If we' re off the radar, that's OK with us. Sometimes that's a nice position to be in."

The Tigers won't be off anybody's radar in the WPIAL, but winning a fourth consecutive Class AAA team title won't be easy.

Seneca Valley, the WPIAL runner-up last year, should have three of its top five runners returning. And third-place North Hills had three freshmen and a sophomore among its top seven runners at the WPIAL championships.

Toss in Baldwin, with speedster T.J. Hobart, a solid Mt. Lebanon squad and a Central Catholic team that seemed to be nothing but ninth-graders a year ago and it is easy to understand why LeDonne expects a scramble for the championship trophy.

"Just in our section [3-AAA], you've got Seneca, which we know is good, and North Hills, which was young last year," he said. "But we've got a few pretty good runners returning."

Will Appman, a senior, was the Tigers fourth finisher at the WPIAL meet last year and was 18th overall.

Ryan Gil made the seven-man varsity team as a freshman, which is unusual at North Allegheny, and Patrick Morgan and Chase Broussard ran with the first group most of the season.

With that many returning runners with varsity experience, the Tigers shouldn't be counted out.

"We have a couple guys who I think are capable of running up front in the bigger races," LeDonne said.

"What we want to do is tighten up the pack and be tough with our five through seven runners. If we expect to do well, we are going to need those guys to come through."

Gil, who was 26th overall at the WPIAL meet and had a time of 16 minutes, 56 seconds on the 3.1-mile Cooper's Lake Campground course, might emerge as the team leader.

"What Ryan did last year surprised me," LeDonne said. "For a freshman to break into our lineup isn't easy, but he did it and ran well. I don't see any freshmen doing that this year, but we do have a couple of sophomores who are looking pretty good."

As always, LeDonne isn't worried about other local teams or where the Tigers are ranked. He's just concerned with his runners' improvement.

"I've learned over the years that the more you focus on other teams, the less you focus on yourself," he said. "So, we just try to get better every day and figure everything will play out."

The North Allegheny girls' team is a different situation, however. LeDonne wasn't disappointed his girls placed third in the WPIAL last year, but he was discouraged. The Tigers finished just nine points behind champion Greater Latrobe with Mt. Lebanon second.

"I just didn't think there was a real strong girls' team out there [in the WPIAL] last year and I thought we could win the title," he said. "But give Latrobe credit; it ran well that day."

What is encouraging is that North Allegheny's top two finishers at the WPIAL championships were freshmen Ali Greco and Sydney Micucci.

What isn't encouraging is that Latrobe is loaded again and Norwin and Fox Chapel had young teams that should do nothing but get better.

"And you know Mt. Lebanon is going to be Mt. Lebanon." LeDonne said of the WPIAL runner-up in Class AAA last year. "But we've got a couple younger girls who might step up and help."

The first good test of the season will come Sept. 6 at the Red, White & Blue meet at Schenley Park. Most of the top teams will be there.

"We always have high expectations for our teams and that hasn't changed," LeDonne said. "We're working to try and realize those expectations."