The Lindbergh cross-country teams each placed sixth and the Hazen boys team placed 12th at the 3A state cross-country meet Saturday.
It was the first time the Lindbergh girls had made state since 1997. Sarah Reiter led the team by finishing in 14th overall with a time of 19 minutes, five seconds. Jasmine Fallgreen placed 37th, Anna Patti 39th, Ariel Hodges 95th, Ericka Galindo 100th, Elizabeth Ramsey 121st and Brenna Fisher 133rd.
“This is by far the best girls team we’ve had,” said Lindbergh coach Jef Rettman. “We haven’t been competing at the state level with the girls, so it’s hard to judge where we were in relation with teams around the state.”
The girls team beat Peninsula and Prarie at state, two teams that had beat the Eagles the week before at districts. Only three Seamount girls team have every placed higher than sixth and the last was Renton in 1981 (fifth). No other teams at state this season had both the boys and the girls in the top six.
Lindbergh’s Trevor Thompson again led the boys team with a 12th overall finish. Thompson ran a time of 15:45 and had the highest finish of any Renton athletes. Nate Reitz placed 34th, Luke Garcia 43rd, James Cornell 60th, Mark Garcia 64th, Nathan Haley 87th and Nate Tandecki 101st.
“The boys got out in good position in the race and competed really well,” Rettman said. “It was kind of a weird year because we had so many injuries. People lost just enough conditioning that they weren’t at 100 percent in fitness.”
The boys team was in a tight pack of four teams (Bellevue, Seattle Prep and Mount Spokane) where only 15 points separated third place from sixth place. This was the second-best finish for the Lindbergh boys ever. The best was fourth, last season.
Freshman Daniel Karpman led Hazen with a 44th –place finish. Conner Hall followed in 62nd, Nick Teal in 70th, Peter VanNuland in 96th, Chris Melrose is 112th, Kyle Gibbs in 118th and Clay Strom in 124th.
Saugat Chhetri placed 81st in the boys race. Chhetri was Renton High’s lone representative at the meet.
Liberty’s Josiah Sherwood placed 59th to lead the Patriot boys. Tyler Westenbroek finished 76th. Megan Chucka came in 68th place for the Liberty girls.