NORMAL – The remnants of any tears erased, the Huntley’s girls basketball team stood along the baseline at Redbird Arena smiling as they posed for pictures and showed off their medals.

The Red Raiders’ introduction to the rest of the state didn’t end as they hoped in a 60-27 loss to Whitney Young, but their Class 4A fourth-place finish punctuated a program-changing weekend.

A team seeded third in their regional isn’t supposed to rip off five straight wins to reach the state semifinals. But the Red Raiders did just that en route to the program’s first state appearance. Even after losses to Rolling Meadows and Whitney Young, Huntley’s unexpected success, nearly derailed before it began with two consecutive losses to end the regular season, is only the starting point of what this program can become.