By CHRIS DOBROWOLSKI

News Sports Editor

For a program that's just days away from its biggest race in the past decade, the Alpena girls cross country team remains surprisingly carefree.

Sure, the nerves might come once the team gets down to the state finals at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Or when the horde of runners take to the starting line on Saturday afternoon.

But the mood was loose and easy going right as practice was starting on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

"This is our reward for working so hard this season," junior Samara Donajkowski said of Saturday's race. "We're going to enjoy it and have fun as a team."

The Wildcats are feeling no pressure for good reason. After taking a big leap forward this year with a third-place finish in the Big North Conference and a first-place finish at last week's regional, Alpena goes into the Division 1 state meet with nothing to lose.

"We're a young team. We're going in with the mindset that we're going to try and finish in the top 10," said Alpena head coach Collin Riffert. "We're going to have to give our all to do that. This is a good experience for them because I plan to be here in the years to come."

With a number of freshmen on Alpena's team who are expected to contribute heavily to the Wildcats' chances, members of Alpena's team also believe this is the first of many trips to the finals.

"It's so exciting. I know we're going to be here for the next three years. It will be crazy," said Kelsey Lewis, one of the freshmen.

"We expect to do really good since we won the regional," said Racheal McDonald, another of the freshmen.

Riffert has this week's practices specifically diagrammed out for the team. Speed work was the focus of Tuesday's and Wednesday's practices, with a lighter workout scheduled for Thursday. The team will do stretching and a warm up early Friday, followed by a short sprint as the final preparation for the big race on Saturday once they get to Brooklyn.

Needless to say, with such a big event right on the horizon, the most difficult thing has been staying focused on something other than running.

"I don't think I've had one school-related thought," said Xavier Donajkowski. "I wasn't concentrating on class."

The Wildcats are going to have to be at the top of their game to reach Riffert's goal of a top 10 finish. As can be expected at a finals meet, the depth of the quality of competition is going to be tougher than Alpena has seen yet this year. As an example, Big North Conference champion Traverse City Central - which is ranked seventh in Division 1 and is the defending state champion - took third at its regional. Top-ranked Rockford cruised to the title in that regional. As many as four of the other nine regionals had two or more ranked teams among the state qualifiers.

"This is the best of the best," said Lewis. "It's going to be hard."

But it clearly won't be strictly business.

"It's going to be fun," said sophomore Taylor Stepanski. "The whole experience of it is going to be fun."

Treating this year's state meet as a bonus has taken away all the pressure and created the relaxed atmosphere.

"The regional was all about winning," said Samara Donajkowski. "We wanted to beat everybody. Saturday is going to be a lot more fun. I'm not saying we're going to take it easy, but we're going to enjoy this more."