The Lindbergh boys cross country team is hoping that team depth will be the key to success in 2024.

“We have a really deep team this year,” Lindbergh head coach Jeff Linger said. “We’ve got a good group of competitive guys at all levels.”

Sophomore Ben Donaldson comes into the 2024 campaign with high expectations after having an outstanding freshman season. In 2023, Donaldson took 47th out of 126 runners at the Missouri Class 5, District 1 championships.

“Ben may arguably be our top runner this year,” Linger said. “He ended up as one of the state’s top freshman runners last season.”

Juniors Michael Ratermann and Ethan Thurman are two runners to watch after they finished 83rd and 85th, respectively, at last year’s district championships. Just two seconds separated the duo.

“It doesn’t matter what race they run,” Linger said. “They literally are always about two seconds apart from each other.”

Senior Evan Tesch returns for his fourth campaign with the Flyers.

“Evan’s been on our district team since his freshman year,” Linger said. “He’s a super hard worker, is pretty competitive, and we’ve seen steady improvement from him year after year.”

Senior Brady Stitz is in his first season on the team, and the Flyers coach is looking for continued success after a promising performance during the track season.

“Brady walked on to the track team last year and had a really solid season,” Linger said. “This is going to be his first year running cross country, and I think he’ll be a staple on our varsity squad this year.”

Other runners to watch are seniors Nathan Mougin, Wyatt Hilton, Patrick Adams, Aden Sartorial, Liam Mueller and Murph Erpelding. Junior Colton Hampton and sophomore Micah Smith will also factor heavily in this season’s lineup.

“Wyatt ran one race last year and broke his leg, but he came in fifth in our first-time trial of the season, which is exciting,” Linger said. “These guys are going to give us a lot of depth at the upper classes that we haven’t had the past couple of years.”