The North Allegheny girls cross country team finds itself in an unusual position heading into the WPIAL Class 3A championships.

The seven-time defending champion Tigers are underdogs — and in a big way.

“I think it’s pretty refreshing, to be honest,” North Allegheny coach John Neff said. “Sometimes we go (to WPIALs) and it’s almost, ‘You either win it or you look bad.’ We don’t have that this year. We’re in a win-win situation.”

While the Tigers (9-0, 6-0) wrapped up an undefeated Section 3-3A title, they will be chasing a powerful Norwin squad at the WPIAL championships Oct. 23 at White Oak Park. Norwin, last year’s WPIAL runner-up, has dominated the in-season invitationals with performances that remind Neff of his best teams during the Tigers’ recent title run.

“That is an unbelievably talented group,” Neff said of state No. 2 Norwin. “That is as good a group as I have seen in a long time. It rivals anything we’ve had in these last few years. … We’re going to try to get as close as we can and see what happens.”

North Allegheny, which graduated four Division I runners from last year’s WPIAL champion, was no match for Norwin at three in-season invitationals. But the youthful Tigers continue to make strides.

“I think a lot of people don’t think we’re very good,” Neff said. “That’s fine. They can continue to think we’re not very good, right up until WPIALs. All that really matters is we think we’re pretty good.”

Senior Andrew Peigh, last year’s WPIAL runner-up, is showing top form for the boys team. He placed second out of 330 runners at the Boardman (Ohio) Invitational and eighth out of 311 runners at the PIAA Foundation meet in Hershey on back-to-back Saturdays in mid-September.

“Andrew is ready,” Neff said. “He is running his very best right now. He is loose, he is focused, and he is dangerous. Will it be enough? I don’t know. Let’s see. But he has optimized what he can do at this point.”

Freshman Samantha Strelick is the girls’ lead runner, with top-five finishes at four invitationals this fall. She placed second at the Red, White & Blue Classic at White Oak Park last month.

Behind Strelick is a tight pack of runners who should put the girls in good position to qualify for the PIAA championships with a top-four finish at WPIALs. Senior Elinor Handel, junior Gabriela Pizon and senior Teresa Pagnotto have experience competing at the WPIALs. They were the Tigers’ 5-6-7 finishers for last year’s district champs.

North Allegheny was scheduled to compete in the Tri-State Invitational on Oct. 18 at White Oak Park in its final tuneup before the WPIAL championships.

“I think our team is doing very well right now,” said Pizon, who ran her personal-best time of 19 minutes, 31 seconds at the Red, White & Blue on the same course as the WPIAL championships. “I have a really good, positive mindset, and I think we can still get a really good spot at WPIALs, even though we might not get first.”