Watching Sam Rhein at a Polk County track meet is a study in efficiency.
Every move has a purpose. Every step is important. He’s quick, but never seems to hurry. Everything he does seems to serve his final goal.
And that’s just watching him hustle from event to event. If you can keep up with him, you ought to earn some team points for that.
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Rhein is a do-everything guy for the Wolverines on the track, and that literally means a little of everything. But Rhein isn’t just racking up points. He’s a factor everywhere he’s entered. Want some proof? Let’s take a look at the recent J. Alan Peoples Invitational at W.J. Miller Field.
He ran the 100 meters, where he earned a third-place finish. He set a personal record with a throw of 116-7 in the discus, finishing fourth. Another PR in the long jump at 21 feet was good for second place and he finished 10th in the shot put, despite having to complete all his throws in just a few minutes as the event was held open for him to allow him to finish jumping.
Just another day at the track.
“It’s really just a lot of understanding what you should prioritize,” Rhein said. “I had to do the 100, which I didn’t do bad on, but I would have liked to place first. The biggest thing is your stamina. And it’s hard to do all the different events – running, throwing, jumping. Sometimes you have to change it up.”
Let’s make clear what he means by “changing it up”. The Polk County record holder in the triple jump put that event aside in the Peoples meet to preserve his fitness, run the 100 meters, and help his team.
“It’s my strongest event, but I really don’t have a dedicated coach for it,” Rhein said. “I haven’t been performing as well, I’ve noticed, and I really don’t want to hurt my knees, especially when I’m doing a bunch more events and my legs are every part of it. I’m more focusing on other things like the 100, and I might move to the 200, too.”
In track meet math, that makes him a unicorn. Instead of the total a triple jump win might bring, his proficiency in so many events sometimes turns into a big points payday for the Wolverines. Rhein likes being versatile, and he likes being counted on.
“It makes me happy,” he said. “It makes me proud that I can show my team that dedication. I’d rather have them put everything on me than not believe in me at all. For all these coaches to love me and try to get me in all these other events, I might not always like it, but I know they’re just trying to help me out and trying to see how far I can go.”
Of the events he’s tried so far, Rhein really enjoys discus and long jump.
“I’m pretty good in long jump, and I’m getting better,” he said. “I’ve been doing discus since sixth grade, and I’ve always tried to hit my peak with it.”
The flexibility to do a lot of things well is one of the things that makes track and field attractive to Rhein.
“I love being able to do multiple things,” he said. “Getting stuck down by one event seems so boring. If I was only running, I probably wouldn’t like track. I can throw, I can jump, I can run. I could even do long distance or pole vault if I needed to.”
He might even be a decathlete in the making.
“That’s what my mom wants me to do,” Rhein said with a grin. “I’d be ok doing that in college. The only thing I’m kind of scared of is that pole vault. But I’m going to have to do it sooner or later. And I find every event fun. There’s not one that’s not fun to me. I don’t get how they do it, but I’ll get it one day.”
For now, Rhein will keep bouncing between events and collecting points for Polk County. And if he could design his perfect meet schedule?
“It’d most likely be shot put, 100, discus, long jump,” he said. “I’ve noticed that the long jump puts the most strain on my body because I’m pretty much slamming my foot down, gliding across the air, and landing on my butt. I feel like shot is pretty simple, really just pushing. And I like running before the discus because I can feel my body moving and kind of shake things out.”
