Juniors Robbie Otal and Reese Smith broke decades-old Oak Park track records at a league meet at Royal High School April 21.

“I was really excited, because I just beat a [24-year-old] record. I’m pretty sure if anyone felt like that, it’d be crazy,” Smith said.

Smith triple-jumped 45 feet and 7.5 inches, beating the previous record of 44 feet and 8.75 inches, which was set in 1992 by Morio Alexander.

Otal broke his own record by throwing a discus 176 feet and 7 inches.

“It feels good,” Otal said. “I worked really hard over the summer. I put in a lot of work gaining a bunch of weight … a lot of lifting.”

Otal set his previous record of 172 feet and 0.5 inches at Moorpark High School in March, breaking a 30-year-old record set by John Knight in 1986.

Throws coach Mark Jacobs, who coached Otal, had also coached Knight in football.

“No one in Oak Park has really dedicated themselves to shot and discus like Robbie has,” Jacobs said.

Even with these accomplishments, the season is not over yet for these two athletes.

“I’d say my goals are a lot farther then what the record was,” Otal said. “It’s kind of a big deal because it’s the oldest record I think there. But I’ve never just been set on that. I’ve wanted to do more.”

Otal aspires to compete at the state competition later this spring.

“My marks are good enough for state if I throw them at the qualifying meets. State’s the goal,” Otal said.

Smith is also hoping to improve as the season progresses.

“My goal is to jump up to 47 [feet] within these next few weeks,” Smith said.

Even so, Smith is content with how the season has gone so far.

“I felt like I was putting in work,” Smith said. “I wasn’t putting in as much work as I should have, but I’m happy I put in enough work to at least be able to beat that and meet my goal.”

For his part, Jacobs is proud of the accomplishments that he has witnessed.

“It’s really nice to see,” Jacobs said, “because basically records were made to be broken.”