Jack Reichenbach was always destined to be a jumper. He was around it throughout most of his childhood.

His father, Dan, was a district record holder at Salisbury for 30 years and an All-American at Moravian. His oldest brother, also named Dan, is a district record holder and Salisbury High School record holder who jumped at Lehigh University. Jumping is in Jack’s blood.

The former Falcon had his best track and field season of his four-year high school career this past spring. He accumulated six medals as a senior, including two at the PIAA Track and Field Championships, to cement himself as another Reichenbach with a rich history in jumping. It also helped him earn this year’s Salisbury Press Male Athlete of the Year.

“I was kind of thrown into it,” Reichenbach said. “I did it minimally in eighth grade CYO for Saint Thomas Moore, but it wasn’t much. When I got to high school it was just like, ‘I’m going to do it and we’ll see how I am at it.’”

Reichenbach, however, faced a bit of a scare that put his season in jeopardy. He injured himself during the basketball season, causing him to miss a couple of early-season track meets.

But he started to feel healthy once the postseason got underway for track, and Reichenbach felt his best during the District 11 Track and Field Championships. It showed with gold-medal performances in both the long jump (22-0 1/4) and high jump (6-0) events. That gave him four gold medals after he won the same two events in the Colonial League Meet a week earlier.

“My senior year in track was really up-and-down,” Reichenbach said. “I missed the first couple of meets, and then I had to come back healthy. It was frustrating, but at the same time I overcame a big challenge, which felt good to be able to overcome that and do what I did.”

At the state meet, he was his impressive usual self once again. Reichenbach left the PIAA Track and Field Championships with two more medals, placing third in the high jump (6-4) and fourth in the long jump (21-5 3/4).

Reichenbach has accumulated 15 total medals during his high school career, earning six at leagues, five at districts and four at states. And that doesn’t even include the invitational meets he entered over his career.

“I didn’t even think I would have a season at all,” Reichenbach said. “So, just for me to be able to get back to the state meet and get two medals, and do better than I did the previous years and improving, was a great point of the season.”

His most gratifying moment, though, circles all the way back to the beginning. After looking up to his dad for so long, Jack broke his district record in the long jump event with a mark of 23 feet, 5 inches as a junior.

“The greatest moment of my track career was beating my dad’s record last year,” Reichenbach said. “That was like the highlight of my career for track.”

During the winter, Reichenbach played basketball for Salisbury and was a gifted scorer from the get-go. Prior to going down with that injury, Reichenbach was able to eclipse the 1,000-point mark for his career.

“For basketball, obviously getting 1,000 points and doing it at Salisbury with my parents there, that was a huge moment,” Reichenbach said. “I was the first boy to do it in like 15 years or so.

“In my first two years at Salisbury, we had 20-win seasons and went to the state tournament. This past season it obviously wasn’t the same as the previous two because we didn’t win as many games and we didn’t go to the postseason at all. But it was still awesome to wear the Salisbury uniform for the last time and play for coach [Jason] Weaver.”

Reichenbach finished his senior season with 256 points, an average of 17 points per game, and made 22 three-pointers. He totaled 964 points at Salisbury and averaged six rebounds per game over those three seasons. Reichenbach started his career at Notre Dame (Green Pond).

He’s spending his summer preparing for the next stage of his track and field career, which features Reichenbach jumping at The University of Rhode Island next season. He also spends time playing pick-up basketball to make up for lost time on the court in the winter.

Reichenbach reports to Rhode Island on September 1.