A Wichita hurdler wins state track title from Lane 8 with unique father-son moment
Standing on the top row of Cessna Stadium, Tim and Kendra Reynolds were a nervous wreck as the Class 5A boys 300-meter hurdles race was set to begin on May 25.
Tim has been the hurdles coach for Bishop Carroll the past 19 years and had all three of the athletes he coached in the race.
Also in the field was Justus Reynolds, their son who was a junior at Goddard Eisenhower.
“I love the Bishop Carroll kids, they come to our house all of the time and we’ve seen them grow up over the years,” Kendra said. “But in that moment, as a mom, my eyes were fixated on Justus.”
Emotion swelled when Justus, running in Lane 8, rounded the curve in front of the pack.
When he crossed the finish line in first place in a career-best time of 38.61 seconds, Tim and Kendra were already in tears.
Their son was a state champion. Of the 84 total races on the track that involved preliminaries, Justus was the only Lane 8 winner.
“I knew I was going to be emotional and happy, but I completely lost it,” Tim said. “It was so much more than what I expected.”
Here are the circumstances that led to one of the most unique wins at the Kansas high school state track and field meet.
‘I didn’t want him to leave something so special’
Justus Reynolds still has memories of when he was in the first grade and his father would drag him around in a wagon at Saturday morning practices with the Bishop Carroll hurdlers.
He idolized his father and the culture he had created with his hurdlers. For good reason — since 2007, Tim has coached 73 state medalists and nine state champions for boys and girls in the two hurdles events. He was also honored by the Kansas Coaches Track and Field Association as the assistant coach of the year for hurdles in 2019.
“He was always around growing up and he saw how I coached and he saw the work the kids would put in,” Tim said. “And then he would hear me talk about the things I expect from them at practice at home.”
When he began hurdling himself in middle school, Justus loved how technical the races were. He became obsessed with technique, watching YouTube videos of the world’s best and even taping his own races to study every frame to better understand how he could shave a tenth of a second from his time. He would talk in detail with his father about how he could improve things like his stride pattern.
It felt only natural for the father and son to continue to work together when Justus began his high school career in 2021. But Justus was enrolling at Eisenhower, while Tim was still coaching at Carroll.
“I didn’t know if I could coach kids who would be running and competing against my son,” Tim said.
In the end, it was Justus who convinced his father to remain at Carroll.
“Obviously it would have been awesome to have my dad at Eisenhower,” Justus said. “But I didn’t want him to leave something he’s built into something so special. I know the kids at Carroll love him and I’m still going to be able to work with him outside of that. I just figured if he would have left, it would have more of an impact on others than it would be for just me.”
‘This is really a dream come true’
There’s a reason why Lane 8 champions almost never occur in the track world.
It’s because the furthest outside lane on the track is reserved for the slowest qualifying time from preliminaries.
At the Kansas state meet, the top two times in each preliminary race automatically advance to the finals with the next four fastest times, regardless of heat, joining them.
So when two hurdlers in the first heat pushed close to full speed, Justus made the split-second decision to conserve energy and settle for a third-place finish. That made for some nervous moments when the second heat was a much faster race.
When both races were sorted, Justus clung to the eighth and final qualifying spot.
“He had the second-fastest time in 5A coming in, so the fact that he ended up as the slowest qualifier wasn’t a real big concern,” Tim said. “We knew what he was capable of and we knew he cruised it, albeit cruised it maybe a little too much.”
While Lane 8 wasn’t ideal, the starting position didn’t affect Justus’ race strategy.
“I would say that it made me more focused on myself,” Justus said. “Mentally, it requires you to catch some people.”
Unfazed by his Lane 8 status and armed with the confidence of his past times, Justus executed his step pattern to perfection and established an early lead in the race.
In one of the fastest 5A 300 hurdles races in recent memory — all eight finalists had cracked 40.2 seconds — it was going to come down to the final push down the straightaway.
Justus crossed the finish line in 38.61 to edge the field by a little more than a tenth of a second.
“I had no doubt in my mind that Justus wasn’t going to seal the deal,” Tim said.
The little boy who was once dragged around in a wagon by his father at hurdle practice was now a champion.
“This really is a dream come true,” Justus said. “This is what I’ve been working for for years. I remember being up in the stands as a little kid watching my dad’s Carroll kids run at the state meet. To actually be here and fulfill my dream, this is an incredible feeling.”
‘That made me cry a little bit’
While Justus was soaking in his victory down at the finish line, his parents were both weeping at the very top row of Cessna Stadium.
At every other race, Tim is always down on the track to coach his athletes. But for the state race, where coaches aren’t allowed on the infield, Tim was able to watch the race with his wife.
“That was really special,” Kendra said. “I rarely get to celebrate with him because he’s always in the trenches with his kids. It was a very emotional moment. I told him he should be so proud, 50% of the podium were his kids.”
Tim’s goal every year is to qualify the maximum of three hurdlers in each race. Not only had Carroll done that, but Noah Holthusen (fifth), Luke Holthusen (sixth) and Caleb DeGroot (seventh) had all came away with state medals.
While Justus had never attended Catholic school, he still considers his Carroll competitors “like brothers.”
“We run with each other all the time and we respect each other and we root for each other,” Justus said. “We don’t care who wins, as long as one of us wins.”
After celebrating with his wife in the stands, Tim raced down the steps of Cessna Stadium and waited for his son at the entrance.
More than 30 minutes passed from the time Justus crossed the finish line, as he had to wait for his moment on the podium, before the father and son embraced.
It was worth the wait.
“I’m going to be honest, he was crying and that made me cry a little bit,” Justus said. “It was something special. But I’m only a junior, so I still have one more year. I feel like I have more to accomplish and I know I’ve got more in the tank.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2024 at 5:02 AM.
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