Caleb Hoover drove up from Joplin.  Drew Keefer from Kansas City.  Daniel Everett from down the road.  Three state champions and the top athletes from around the region met at Gay Field from April 29 to May 1 for the 77th annual Marion Freeman Invitational.  Despite the regional acclaim and packed house for the Marion Freeman Invitational April 29-May 1, few students are aware that record-setting athletes perform annually in our backyard.

“The level of competition here is one of the best that you will see in the state of Missouri,” boys’ track coach Kurtis Werner said.

Marion Freeman, namesake of the invitational, invites the best runners from the region every year to participate.  Freeman has organized the meet the past 42 years and is responsible for restarting the Clayton cross country program.

“We have had some wonderful athletes come down the pike, it has been a great meet year after year,” Freeman, the former CHS boys’ track and boys’ basketball coach, said.  “There was a stretch of 10 years in a row where the Clayton invitational team champion was also the state titlist.”

Westminster’s Everett, who completed the 1600-meter race in 4:11.34, the fourth best time for a high school athlete nationwide in 2011 according to dyestat.com, agreed that the meet has a “great reputation” and that the entire field was “stacked” every year.

This year’s meet lived up to its usual reputation, with four races setting the top times in the state of Missouri for 2011.

Everett was disappointed in just missing the invitational record in the 1600, but appreciated the work Freeman does on a yearly basis to organize the event and said he looked forward to the meet each year.  Freeman was confident that had the wind settled, Everett would have broken 4:10 and possibly the invitational record.

“At all my cross-country and track races that Mr. Freeman is at, he pulls me aside and gives me an update on the field that he is putting together,” Everett said. “With how much he put into the mile over the past three years, I felt disappointed that I did not get the record for him, but knowing Mr. Freeman, he will continue to put together a great field to get that record someday.”

Freeman and Werner agreed that the top level of competition was beneficial to the growing boys’ track team.

Werner said that it would be “terrifying to compete” against such high level competition, but that it was necessary for improvement.

“If you want to be the best, you have to train against the best and you are not going to see anything less than the best at the Marion Freeman Invitational,” Werner said. “I believe some of our younger guys now have really gotten the experience have gotten the experience of participating in the Marion Freeman Invitational and now understand what it’s all about.”

Freshman Andy Hodapp, one of the “younger guys” who has displayed great potential, said it was a pleasure to be running with such famous runners.

Freeman said that he enjoyed putting the meet together and hoped that the level of competition at the meet could “help our Clayton team in the long run.”

Sophomore Derrick Stone, a member of the boys’ 4×800 relay team, thought the team could have performed better.  However, Stone thought the meet was a great learning experience and looked forward to the meet next year for another chance to compete against the top runners.

Freeman attends CHS boys’ track practice regularly and has seen huge improvements just over the season.  He said that the work that the student-athletes put in over the winter was “really showing up in the meets.”

Hodapp said he truly appreciated Freeman’s presence at practice and said that Freeman really motivated him “during and after races and that (Freeman) personally taught” him how to use starting blocks.  Stone agreed that Freeman was an asset to the coaching staff.

“Coach Freeman comes to practice all the time,” Stone said.  “He talks to us regularly about our splits and we respect him for that, that someone as experienced as him can give us daily insight about what we are doing.”

Everett agreed that the hard work an athlete puts in during practice will pay off, crediting his great 1600 time to the work has put in over the past five years and pacing from his brother during the first half of the race.

An additional goal for the future is to increase community involvement in the event.

“Track and field is underappreciated as a true sport, especially if you have a top quality field such as the boys’ mile this year,” Werner said.

Freeman said that he put “match races” in the distance events to make for more competitive races.  In these races, the 16 best runners regardless of school size were put on the track, which led to some “marvelously competitive races” and a more interesting experience for the community.

Hodapp, in his first year at the event, said that the Marion Freeman Invitational would be great for spectators because of the broad spectrum of talent at athletes running at seemingly “inhuman” speeds.

Not only community members should community members look forward to the event, but student-athletes do as well, praising the organization and competition annually at the meet.

“Runners from every other school always say this is the meet where they are going to get their personal record,” Stone said. “It is really important meet, for me personally, and for the team.”