Discover the impressive victories of Missouri high school track stars Jayden Marley and Michael Clark, following in the footsteps of Olympian Brandon Miller.
(left to right) Metro’s Jaydon Marley had a banner season as a sprinter and it paid off at the end, with gold medals at state. Likewise for Lutheran North’s Mike Clark (third from left). Both are aspiring to be like former John Burroughs’ star 800-meter distance runner Brandon Miller (far right) who qualified this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, after placing third in the recent Olympic Trials, after being a three-time 800 meter champion at Texas A&M University, after graduating from the West County high school, John Burroughs.
The Paris Olympics will get underway later this month, with local track and field sensation Brandon Miller of John Burroughs High competing in the 800 meters, an event he has most recently stood out in at Texas A&M University. But Miller got his start running AAU (Amateur Athletic Union ) track as a youth in grade school and later at John Burroughs, where he competed against schools such as conference rival Lutheran North and non-conference schools like Metro.
Interestingly enough, at this spring’s Missouri state high school track and field championships, it was a runner from Metro- Jayden Marley- and a runner from Lutheran North-Michael Clark- who won coveted ‘gold medal’ state championships. As Miller takes aim at the ‘ultimate gold medal’ on the largest world stage next month, staying topical, let’s take a look back at what (Jaydon) Marley and Mike (Clark) accomplished back in the spring, since track and field conversation will never be more popular than it is now during an Olympics summer? Will Marley and Clark be future Olympians, in the process?
Jayden Marley was primed to close out his high school track and field career at Metro Classical Academy High with a bang. Lutheran North’s Michael Clark had to stay injury-free when it counted most, and he would be able to end his sophomore season in grand fashion.
Well in late May at the Missouri Class 3 boys state track and field championships in Jefferson City, both runners were able to accomplish those goals and the end result was ‘gold’ , as in first-place gold medals as event champions.
Marley became the first Metro athlete in 12 years to win a state title by capturing both the 100 meters dash (10.72 seconds) and 200 meters (21.75 seconds), while Clark outlasted the field in the 400 meters, which included Marley, to win the race in 47.88 seconds to help atone for an injury-shortened freshman season.
“I just needed to trust myself and focus on the goal (ahead),” recalled Marley, who had captured the state’s coveted 100-meter dash early in the meet, before placing fourth in the longer race later. “I was coming off a somewhat disappointing 400 meters race, finishing fourth, which was one place lower than last year. So I couldn’t allow that to ruin my last race. I didn’t even allow myself (a chance) to celebrate my 100 win because I needed to focus on other events. All the emotions and pain, and victories and losses came together in this race.”
The end result was that Marley would go on to win the 200 meters in 21.75 seconds, edging out Canyon Crowley of Fair Grove in who came in a-tenth of second behind 22-seconds flat, as Marley claimed his second gold medal at the meet and became Metro’s first state champion in over 10 years, not once but twice in the same day.
“This was my last high school race ever,” noted Marley. “Coming out of the blocks I attacked the curves aggressively . Coming off the curve, I gave it everything I had left into the kick. I was able to do that, knowing all the hard work I had put into improving my speed and endurance, giving me the strength to close (strongly).”
Meanwhile over at Lutheran North, home of the Crusaders, Clark’s challenge was staying injury-free, according to a source who knows best, longtime Crusaders track and field coach Jim Prahlow.
“Mike Clark had some hamstring issues late in his (freshman) season last year,” relayed Prahlow. “We were much more cautious with him this year, with the 100 meters seemingly being the race that put him most at risk. As the season progressed this (past) year, his initial issues with the hamstring, that curtailed his workout load, faded.”
But Prahlow said the injury bug resurfaced in the state-qualifying rounds in the shorter 200 meters race, forcing Clark to withdraw from that, leaving only the 400 meters as his lone individual event this year. Still that was a better outcome than his freshman campaign when he didn’t make through the 400 meter qualifying rounds to even get to state.
“I believe for him it was a redemption from last year’s disappointment-the hamstring thing, pulling him out of all individual events (last year) and then missing this year’s 200,”said Prahlow. “His victory in the 400 became the capstone of the season, with a focus on driving through the last 180 meters of the race. It was really exciting to finally see Mike move into position early and then execute his race strategy into the finish line, accomplishing something he had hoped to do as a freshman.”
Now will those future steps for Clark and Marley mean more gold medals? The future looks bright-and fast.
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