Matt Wixon

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AUSTIN – It was a sunny Saturday afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium, so Rowlett senior Marquise Goodwin arrived at the awards stand wearing sunglasses. But was he shielding his eyes or his identity?

Goodwin just laughed when asked.

"A lot of people know who I am," he said, "and that's pretty cool."

Even more know now after Goodwin, for the second straight year, won five medals in five events – the maximum an athlete can compete in. Goodwin won the long jump for the third straight year, a second straight triple-jump title, was part of Rowlett's winning 4x100 relay and finished second in the 100 and 200.

ERICH SCHLEGEL / Special to DMN

Marquise Goodwin (left) takes the baton from Carl Perryman during Rowlett's victory in the 4x100 meter relay.

He scored 41 of Rowlett's 66 points to lead his team to a second straight 5A boys title.

"That was the most important thing," Goodwin said.

Unlike some athletes, Goodwin is sincere about that. On Saturday, he talked of teammates such as Kyle Clemons, who blistered the field in the 400. He congratulated members of the Skyline girls team after they won a relay. He even clapped encouragement to Plano East's Toddrick Allen as he made an attempt in the high jump.

But Goodwin's performance overshadowed everything else. He had a personal best in each event, including a mark in the long jump that was more than two feet better than his fellow competitors. His long jump of 26 feet, 4 ¾ inches broke his meet record and was the best high school jump in the nation this year.

Unfortunately, the wind was slightly above the allowed limit, so the mark won't go in the record books.

"That's OK," said Goodwin, a Texas signee. "People saw me do it."

And they oohed and ahhed as he did it. That happened every time Goodwin attempted a jump, bolted from the blocks or took a handoff.

Goodwin didn't win five golds, but he came close. He was six hundredths of a second behind the winner in the 200; in the 100, Killeen Ellison's Prezel Hardy ran an amazing race to edge Goodwin. Had the wind been under the limit, Hardy's time of 10.08 would've broken a 19-year-old meet record set by Greenville's Henry Neal.

So Goodwin didn't win five golds in one meet, which has been accomplished by only two boys and two girls in the meet's history. But he does have seven gold medals in the last three state meets, 12 medals in all, and the deep admiration of his coach.

"He's by far the greatest athlete I've ever coached," Rowlett coach David Nanez said. "The way he's progressed, he might be the best high school track athlete in the U.S."

Yes, as far as high school track athletes go, Goodwin is pretty much a rock star. He was on Saturday, except for one thing:

Rock stars usually don't prepare for a performance by sleeping in a Chevy Suburban.

That's right. The most decorated athlete at the meet prepped for the big day by snoozing on a bench seat early Saturday morning. Goodwin had to because the Rowlett graduation ceremony was Friday night.

And he wasn't going to miss that.

"That was one of the best days of my life," he said.

The next day turned out pretty good, too.