The brothers, senior Christian Freeman and junior Kevin Freeman, are two of CHS’s most talented runners. Both participate on the cross country and track teams and are seeded to win CIF this year for cross country. The brothers have achieved notable running times in competition, but the most remarkable was Christian’s 9:11 two-mile run, which became our school’s record. Kevin’s personal best for the one mile, 4:38, doesn’t fall far behind his brother’s.
Though showered with accolades, both runners did not discover their talent until their freshman year when they began to run track.
“I originally started running to stay in shape for soccer and because of encouragement from Christian” Kevin said.
It is remarkable that two runners of such high caliber are related, and both seem to benefit from each other’s presence on the team.
“It’s great to have him pushing me along and motivating me, especially since Christian is the fastest student CHS has ever had, and he makes an excellent person to train with, even if he drops me in harder runs” Kevin said.
When asked about his opinion of running alongside Kevin, Christian seemed ecstatic.
“We almost run in every race together, but we usually can’t help each other because we have different racing strategies” Christian said. “But our most memorable race would have to be during the League finals for track, where I helped pace Kevin through a personal best in the two-mile.”
Along with the thrill of racing, there is also a side of cross country many of us don’t get to see: the time and sacrifices made during practice.
“Every member of our team has had to make sacrifices,” Kevin said. “On average we run nine or more miles every day which is tiring and time consuming. Trying to balance AP classes and hours of running cuts greatly into our free time.”
The brothers have put in countless hours of training but remain focused on achieving their goals.
“Our motivation since the beginning of the year has been to repeat our Division I CIF championship, qualify for the state meet again and place in the top three, which would qualify us for Nike nationals in Portland, Oregon.” Senior Christian said.
The brothers will be running side by side in this week’s invitational at Mount SAC on Oct 20.
