Rieves attended Class AAA Wheeling High School where he turned in one of the greatest sprinting performances in the history of the state high school championship track meet his senior year. At the meet, Rieves broke the Class AAA 440-yard dash record with 47.7 second time, eclipsed the 220-yard dash mark with a 21.5-second clocking and tied the 100-yard dash mark of 9.8 seconds in the qualifying heat. That was the first time anyone had won three of those events in one state meet. It was also the first time since 1939 that anyone has won three events. He helped Wheeling capture fourth at the meet by scoring 18 of their 21 points.

As a freshman at WVU, Rieves was a part of the 880-yard relay team that broke the school record with a clocking of 1:28. At the same meet, Rieves won both the 100- and 220-yard dashes with times of 10.05 and 22.1 seconds, respectively. He was also a part of the 440-yard relay team that won the event with a time of 42.5 seconds. At the Concord Invitational, Reives won the 300- and 440-yard events in addition to also running on the winning 1600-yard relay team. He tied the meet record for the 300-yard run with a time of 32.1 seconds. He won the 440 in 50.5 seconds. That year, Rieves also set school records in the 300-and 600-yard runs during the indoor season and anchored a record setting mile relay team.