Reese figured his leap would win the triple jump at Saturday’s annual Temple Relays at Wildcat Stadium.
But it did much more than that.
His jump of 48 feet, 7 inches was both a Temple Relays and school record.
Reese’s 37 individual points - the high total in this year’s meet - helped power the Temple boys to 154 points and the team championship, besting Killeen by 34 points.
On the girls’ side, Belton recorded 107 points to place second behind Harker Heights (161) and Temple’s Tem-Cats tallied 45 points to finish sixth out of eight teams.
Along with winning the triple jump, Reese also won the 300-meter hurdles to go with a second-place finish in the long jump. He was also a part of Temple’s first-place 400 relay and the second-place 1,600 relay.
However, Reese’s record-setting day didn’t leave much of an impression on him.
“It don’t mean nothing,” he said. “I can’t slow down now. I’ve still got to go to district, regionals and state.”
Reese’s performance highlighted a strong day for Temple’s boys in both the track and field events.
The Wildcats won seven events - including an impressive come-from-behind win in the 400 relay keyed by anchor Lache Seastrunk’s final 40 meters.
“They (Killeen) had a pretty good start, but I wasn’t having any of it,” Seastrunk said. “I told myself I was going to go get it.”
Seastrunk, a sophomore who won last year’s District 13-5A title in the 100, also won the 100-meter dash in a hand-timed season-best of 10.38 seconds.
The Wildcats also got individual titles from defending Class 5A silver medalist Harry Sheppard in the high jump (6-4), Daniel Carr in the long jump (22-11) and Chris Anderson in the 400 (50.16).
“I’m very proud of our kids. They did a great job,” Temple coach Wayne Ransleben said. “I’ve been challenging them all week that if they come out and perform, we can win our meet. It’s been a long time.”
Coming into the meet’s final two events, the Belton girls were tied for third place with Waco Midway at 73 points. The Lady Tigers finished strong, recording first, second and fourth in the 1,600 meters.
Regan Tindell won her second event of the day, with a time of 5 minutes, 15.06 seconds in the 1,600, after winning the 3,200 earlier. Skylor Alford, who won the 800, finished second and Sam Allen finished fourth.
Belton also took third in the 1,600 relay to finish second with 107 points.
Also winning events for the Lady Tigers were pole vaulter Morgan Toone and Myca San Miguel in the 100 hurdles.
Temple senior Trenette Smith’s second-place finish in the high jump was the Tem-Cats’ best of the day.
Erika Allen finished third in the 100 meter hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles for the Tem-Cats.
Temple’s teams will compete at the Ellison Relays on Friday in Killeen.
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
