The Reina name has been synonymous with Arkansas Track & Field for more than 40 years, but the family legacy reached new heights this past weekend at the Arkansas Invitational, inside the Randall Tyson Track Center.
Razorback junior distance runner Reuben Antonio Reina ran the mile in 3:59.91 on Saturday, making him and his father – Reuben Rory Reina – the first father and son tandem in Razorback history to each run a mile in less than four minutes. They are only the 15th such duo in the world to ever accomplish that feat.
“It was really special, mainly because I was really happy for him,” said the proud dad, who ran the mile in 3:58.88, slightly faster than his son, at the 1989 Southwest Conference Championships in Fort Worth. “I know how hard he has been training to get to that point, with all the injuries he has had to deal with, so for him to finally get to that point, I was really excited for him.”
A father of four accomplished runners, including three daughters, the 56-year-old Reina was a seven-time state champion before graduating from San Antonio’s John Jay High School in 1986. He won the mile and two-mile events in each of his last three years of high school. He also won the state cross country title, just weeks before winning the 1985 Footlocker cross country national championship with a time of 14:36 — still the course record.
Following in the footsteps of his two older brothers, Randy and Roland, who both ran for the Razorbacks in the early 1980s, Reina embarked on a Hall of Fame career at Arkansas in 1986. He became an eight-time All-American, winning back-to-back NCAA championships in the indoor 3000 meters, as Arkansas won the indoor team national championship all four years of his collegiate career – and all during the program’s 12-year title run.
After college, Reina ran professionally, winning the USA Cross Country Championships in 1994 and 1996, while also representing the United States in the 5000 meters at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. He retired from competitive running in 2000, becoming a personal trainer at the Fayetteville Athletic Club.
He still runs four to six miles each day, just to stay in shape.
Reina’s wife and high school sweetheart, the former Joell Olivares, also ran for Arkansas in the early 1990s. But the family legacy with the Razorbacks also extends to his sister, Janis, his oldest daughter, Valerie, and his nephew, Rio. His middle daughter, Elise, chose to play soccer at Kansas.
“It is special, because the Reina name goes back a long way,” the eldest Reuben said. “You’re never guaranteed that your kid is going to go on and do what you did at the same level, so to have your son continue that tradition is really special. I’m just happy to be able to watch him do it.”
The 20-year-old Reuben was a dominant runner at Springdale’s Har-Ber High School, winning the 3,200-meter state indoor title as a junior, then claiming the 1,600 and 3,200 outdoor titles as a senior, breaking the state record in 1,600 with a 4:09.86 at the 2021 Arkansas Meet of Champions. He also became the fastest high school miler in state history with a time of 4:07.53.
“He grew up going to track meets his whole life, especially with his sisters running before him,” Reina said of his son, who started running competitively in junior high school. “He showed some ability at a young age and was always one of the better kids, even back then. And he’s always had his own ambitions and had that confidence to be good.”
The younger Reuben enrolled at Arkansas in the fall of 2021, but began facing injuries, including a stress fracture to his tibia, which hampered his freshman season. Now back at full strength, he has begun to shine on the track, and on the trails.
Although he finished second in Saturday’s mile race to Arkansas alum Austen Dalquist’s 3:58.20, Reina was thrilled to beat the four-minute mark for the first time.
“It was just a great feeling, a great accomplishment — not just for me personally, but for our team,” Reina said with a big grin. “Going into the race I really thought I was going to be able to do it. Everything just seemed to set up perfectly, and in the mile, each lap has to be 30 seconds, so you know how you are doing throughout the race. The only time I wasn’t sure if I did it, was right at the end, because they stop the clock when the first guy crosses and I was right behind him. Then I saw the time pop up and knew that I had done it.”
His profile on the Razorbacks’ website lists his father as the person he most admires, and credits his dad for inspiring him to excel in the sport.
“He’s been a great influence on me since I began,” he said. “I know how great of a runner he was back in college. I have people come up to me all the time talking about how great my dad was, so it I’m really proud of him and all that he was able to accomplish. And it’s pretty special to have your whole family involved in the sport and actually understanding what you are doing, and understand the sport of running.”
The older Reina’s biggest influence was his coach at Arkansas, the legendary John McDonnell, who led the Razorbacks to 40 national championships during his 36-year career.
“He’s the legend – he’s the GOAT in track & field,” Reina said of the late coach, who passed away in 2021. “His titles and what he accomplished is unmatched by anybody, in any sport. He was just a genuine guy. He really instilled confidence in you and he was very big on discipline and doing things the right way. Everything was structured, from how you practiced at the same time every day, to when you went to sleep. He instilled that in his athletes and that’s what it took to be so good.
“He was able to get everyone to buy in as a team. Most people look at track & field as an individual sport, but with John, it was all about ‘we’, not ‘I’. He made everybody understand that it wasn’t about you, it was about us. He was able to bring a lot of power to us as a team, as a unit. That inspired you to have to dig a little deeper some times, and that brought out the best in all his athletes. We knew that there was more than just ourselves on the line.
Reina now passes those lessons on to his kids, and knows his coach would be proud.
“John McDonnell would have loved to have seen this,” he said. “He’s definitely in Heaven looking down and smiling, I’m sure.”
The young Reuben now has his own ambitions on making it to the Olympics, if not this year, in 2028. He also has one other big ambition – to beat his dad’s time in the mile.
“Everyone is asking that,” he said with a laugh. “I definitely plan on running another mile this season, and I’ve got to chase that. I’ve got to get that just to have a point to talk some trash to him. That would be great, and that would be the most ideal thing to have on him.”
