When the cross country runners at Seneca Valley High School say they know every inch of their home course they aren't kidding.

That's because the Raiders' runners helped construct and maintain the 3.1-mile layout on the school's campus near Zelienople.

"They've helped design it and they're the ones who have gone out and cleared it off," Seneca Valley coach Jim Nagle said. "So, it's very much their course."

The Raiders did rather well on that course last year. The boys were 10-0 overall in duel meets, 8-0 in Section 3-AAA. The girls' squad was 5-4 overall.

Even more impressive is that the Seneca Valley boys were the WPIAL Class AAA runners-up to North Allegheny, edging third-place Mt. Lebanon in the process. The Raiders were eighth in the team standings at the PIAA championships.

Five of Seneca Valley's top seven runners return, including senior Chris Cipro, who was fourth at the WPIAL championships last year, and junior Cam Stauffer, who was 10th.

Cipro, along with North Allegheny's Matt Jacob, Baldwin's T.J. Hobart and Butler's Ben Porter, figure to battle it out for the WPIAL Class AAA individual title this season.

"I wouldn't trade Chris for anybody," Nagle said. "He has OK speed, but he knows how to run and he gets the most from what he has."

Stauffer isn't far behind and they give the Raiders a solid one-two punch. The other top seven returnees are sophomore Andrew Rasanauskas, and juniors Matt Marchese and Eric Geddes.

PennTrackXC.com, which does state cross country rankings, has North Allegheny No. 1, Seneca Valley No. 4 and Mt. Lebanon No. 5 in its preseason Class AAA rankings. Nagle agreed with North Allegheny's standing, but not the Raiders'.

"There's no way we are the fourth-best team in the state," he said. "We've got the potential to be good, but just how good is hard to say. We have to stay healthy and we have to have some guys come on for us."

Seneca Valley's girls' team finished fourth in the WPIAL last year and advanced to the PIAA championships, which was remarkable considering Nagle had just four runners compete in the Red, White & Blue meet, the first big invitational of the season.

The Raiders will compete in the Red, White & Blue meet Saturday morning at Schenley Park Oval.

"Last year, we scrimmaged Mt. Lebanon and Oakland Catholic and I had just two girls. We didn't have the numbers and we weren't healthy," Nagle said. "This year, I've got about a dozen girls, which isn't bad. But when you look at the numbers North Allegheny and Mt. Lebanon have ..."

It didn't help that Kelly Hahn, who placed 10th at the WPIAL championships last year as a freshman, has moved to Michigan with her family. That leaves senior Emily Wolfarth and junior Megan Powell as the team leaders. They placed 19th and 20th, respectively, at the WPIAL championships a year ago.

Also returning from the top seven is junior Joelle Scarnati and sophomore Lauren McKinney.

"If the girls can stay healthy, we should be competitive," Nagle said. "The group we have is a real good mix, and they're working hard. But, again, we don't have a lot of depth, so avoiding injuries is important."

Nagle sees his runners about once every other week in the summer. He expects them to run on their own during the hot weather and said everybody showed up the first day of practice in good shape.

"We'll see where we stand Saturday at the Red, White & Blue meet," he said. "The boys were 10th there last year. It should be a good test for us."

As for the Raiders' home course, Nagle would like Seneca Valley to host an invitational next year.

"There are still some things we need to do to it," he said of the course. "It gets pretty muddy in about three spots when the weather's bad and that's something I'd like to fix first ... The course is wide enough and we think it's pretty good."

So are the runners who help keep it clean.