JEFFERSON TWP - Without realizing it, the members of the Seneca Valley girls 1,600-meter relay team stand in the order in which they run while giving an interview in the middle of the Knoch High School football field.

It's the same phenomena that afflicts offensive linemen when they are sitting on the bench, sipping Gatorade, or guys who paint R-A-I-D-E-R-S on their bare chests and stand at football games.

"Everywhere we go, we do that," says senior Kim Chapman, who runs the third leg of the relay.

"Yeah," interjects senior Carrie Wack, the anchor of the group. "It's pretty strange."

What isn't strange is how successful the girls track and field team has been this season at Seneca Valley.

The Raiders toppled perennial power North Allegheny on Tuesday for only the second time in 25 years and thumped Knoch Thursday to improve to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the section.

"We have four more steps to go," said Seneca Valley coach Wayne Roccia before Thursday's meet. "We have to get by these guys (Knoch) first."

But even two days later, the members of the 1,600-relay team were still buzzing about the win over North Allegheny.

The Raiders had a feeling they would be pretty strong this season. After all, they finished second behind NA last season in the WPIAL and lost only a small percentage of their key members to graduation.

Still, beating the Tigers wasn't high on the list of things the Raiders felt they could do in 2005.

"I think we had high expectations," Wack said. "But beating NA was not one of them."

But the Raiders did. The 1,600-relay team didn't, however, finishing behind NA Tuesday.

Even though the quartet didn't topple NA, the scene after the meet when they found out they had edged the Tigers was pandemonium, Wack said.

"We were so excited, we were screaming," Wack said. "Our coaches were teary-eyed."

But there are bigger meets to come.

As a group, the 1,600-meter relay team is shooting for the school record of 4 minutes, 4.11 seconds, which they tied last season.

They ran a time of 4:30 against the Knights Thursday.

"We want to beat that record," said senior Jaylan Giuliano, who runs the first leg of the relay. "We want it bad."

The quartet already got a big blast of pressure when the meet with NA came down to the 1,600-meter relay and the high jump.

That's not such a bad thing, the members say.

"We get so freaked out before we run," Wack said. "Before we ran against NA, I was crying. Since we always run last, it always comes down to us, it seems. We don't want to let the team down."

"We freak out at first," said sophomore Aly Triscut, who runs the second leg. "But we all get together and tell each other we can do it. We can do it. I think it will help us."

It's hard to imagine the quartet as a stressed bunch. They joke around in anticipation of their race, hardly showing the affects of all that pressure and expectation weighing down on them.

They are also a close group, hugging each other and sharing jokes.

"We're all so goofy," Giuliano said. "We're hard to take seriously."

It's hard not to take the Raiders seriously now.

Seneca Valley is rolling despite losing a key member of the team, Danielle Diamond, who tore her ACL during volleyball season. The team is also missing sprinter Nikki Bryan.

"We've had some serious hills to climb," Roccia said.

The ultimate hill is to the PIAA Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University in May. But beating North Allegheny for a WPIAL title has now suddenly become an achievable goal for the quartet and for the Raiders as a team.

"Every time we go out, we try to get better," Wack said. "I think we can definitely qualify for states. Hopefully we can do more."