After finishing second at the state meet last year, the Lindbergh boys cross-country team only has one place to go if they want to improve: Straight to the top of the podium.

“I didn’t have to mention anything to them,” said Lindbergh coach Jef Rettmann. “We don’t talk about it much, but believe me they know. We were second last year and if we want to do better, there’s only one place to do that.”

The Eagles welcome back five of their seven varsity runners, including the top three at state. Leading the team last year were twin brothers Luke and Mark Garcia.

Luke finished 14th (16 minutes, 16 seconds) and Mark 16th (16:20) at state. Nine of the runners who finished ahead of them were seniors and won’t be around this year.

Rettmann said junior Mohamud Abdi and Nathan Haley are also running near the front in practice, making it a possibility for the team to three or four runners going below 16:00 this season.

“That’s fast,” Rettmann said. “We have a really tight pack; but with the way they’ve improved, we have a front-runner pack also.”

Luke Garcia said time goal has kept them working even harder than usual through the offseason.

“Most of us are trying to break 16 this year,” Garcia said. “It’s a big thing because we’re all really hoping to get first.”

Senior Travis Downen returns from the state team and gives that front-runner pack a little more depth.

“Sehome beat us last year, they have a good program and they’re going to be good this year,” Rettmann said. “So it’s no given. But we think we’ve got a good chance.”

The Lindbergh girls team finished sixth at the state meet, but Sarah Reiter blew away the field to win the 2A state title.

The senior beat the second-place runner by nearly 24 seconds, and she’s still buzzing.

“It’s still exciting even though it happened a while ago,” Reiter said.

Reiter’s main competition right now is the clock. Reiter is likely to win most Seamount meets by a wide margin, so for her it’s all about improving her time and impressing at meets.

“In a sense of college she’s competing with the 3A and 4A girls too,” Rettmann said. “She’s plenty motivated; she’s not sitting back on her laurels.”

Reiter said she’s hoping to break 18:00 and get close to 17:30 this season.

After Reiter, the team also has senior standout Anna Patti. Patti placed sixth at the state meet last season.

Senior Jasmine Fallgreen placed 37th at state and keeps making big strides. She finished fifth in the 3,200-meter run at the state track meet this spring.

“With Sarah, Anna and Jasmine clearly our top three we have very good front-runners,” Rettmann said. “We need our pack to improve a little bit to move up.”

Also on varsity are juniors Ariel Hodges and Elizabeth Hansen, as well as seniors Mercedes Tischer and Brenna Fisher.

Starting from Rettmann’s second season in 2000, the boys team has had multiple losses in the league twice. In those years, the team had the individual state champion (Sam Ahlbeck, 2004) and finished sixth at state (2006). The boys are working on a six-year streak of both winning the Seamount, and finishing eighth or better at the state meet. Since 2000, the boys have an overall league record of 71-8.

The girls side didn’t rack up the accolades of the boys side until recently; but since 2008 the team has a 22-1 league record and has finished in the top six at state twice.

“Last year’s team was probably the best we’ve had,” Rettmann said. “If we can stay healthy, this will be the best team we’ve had for sure.”