Q & A: DtB Talks to Eden Prairie's Jeff Lindlief

On the heels of Eden Prairie's sweep of the boys' team and individual titles at the MSHSL State Cross Country Meet on Saturday (plus a third-place trophy in girls' Class AA), we tracked down Eagles' head coach Jeff Lindlief to get his thoughts on the big weekend.

Eden Prairie's boy's team title was the program's first, despite a eight-year steak of making the State meet -- out of the meat-grinder that is Section 6AA, no less!

Here's what Lindlief had to say about the meet and his teams ...

Down the Backstretch: How did the boys' team race unfold for your squad? Did the races set up the way you hoped it would for your team?

Jeff Lindlief: The boys came in with a solid race plan and really executed it well. We didn't want to be "out-of-control" fast at the start, but yet, didn't want to be too far back at the 800. From there, they did a great job of consistently moving up in the pack throughout the race.

DtB: We heard that your #4 man had a big finish. Did you see that as it happened?

Lindlief: Yes, Erick Meszaros-Jones had the best 2nd half of any race in his career. He ran with great confidence and probably passed about 10 people in the last kilometer.

DtB: At the finish line, were you confident your team had won the race?

Lindlief: Absolutely not--in fact, I was pretty sure that Wayzata had beaten us. They are a very well-coached and successful team. We knew that the final score might be within ten points or less.

DtB: Eden Prairie has a tremendous tradition of making it out of Section 6AA and doing well at State. Still, what were the emotions like to finally win a boys' State title?

Lindlief: It was not only neat for the current EP team, but it was most rewarding to see many of our EPHS alumni and former coach, Larry Anderson at the meet. We've had plenty of 2nd and 3rd place finishes through the years, so it was fun to finally win one.

DtB: Tell us something about Aaron Bartnik. Would you have tabbed him as a potential State titlist at this time last year?

Lindlief: Aaron is an extremely talented and hard-working kid...but even as well as he ran in track last spring, I wouldn't have pegged him as a potential State CC Champion.

After seeing some of his early season workouts and races, it became apparent that if he stayed healthy, he would be right in the mix of things at State. The best thing about Aaron, however, is that even after winning a State individual title, he seemed to be even happier about his team winning the State team championship.

DtB: Finally, you had the #1-ranked girls' team going into State. The team finished 3rd in a close three-way finish. What was the determining factor in that race, from your point of view?

Lindlief: As you know, rankings are always so misleading. We knew that there were 5-6 teams that were very close in the State coming into St. Olaf. Other than seeing Lakeville South (in the Lake Conference Meet in October), we hadn't raced any of those teams since September... so we weren't too caught up in the #1 ranking!

We certainly didn't have an awful race, but it also probably wasn't our best performance all year. Only 3 of our 7 girls had ever competed in a Section or State Meet before this year, so hopefully this year's experience will help us next fall!