Pinckney High School graduate Sam Black isn’t going to Paris for the Summer Olympics, but he will still get to wear a Team USA jersey for the third time in his track and field career.
By placing seventh in decathlon at the recent U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Ore., Black earned a spot in the Thorpe Cup, a decathlon and heptathlon competition between the United States and Germany July 20-21 in Germany.
It will be Black’s second appearance on the seven-member men’s U.S. Thorpe Cup squad, having competed last year. He was also on the U.S. team for the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile.
Opportunities like this to represent his country have kept Black competing three years beyond the completion of his career at Saginaw Valley State University.
“That’s why I do it,” he said. “There’s not really a ton of money in the sport, which is fine. I do it so I get a chance to put that jersey on. Any opportunity I get to put that jersey on, I’ll definitely take them up on it; I’ll never turn that down. The trips are so fun. The athletes are great on the other teams. I love getting a chance to do this.”
Black took his second shot at making the Olympic team June 21-22 at Hayward Field, improving upon a 10th-place finish in the 2021 trials. Black scored 7,952 points in the 10 events after scoring 7,899 three years ago.
The top three finishers qualified for the Olympics, led by Heath Baldwin of Michigan State University.
“It was awesome going out to that place,” Black said. “Any chance you get is just incredible. Being able to compete with some of, not only the best athletes in the United States, but also best athletes in the world and getting a chance to see if you can make the world’s best track team is always super fun.
“The overall experience competing, I thought I did well. I felt I did leave some points out there on the second day, but I’m still not upset with my performance at all. I gave if my all. I’m happy with how it ended.”
Black’s best finish was his fifth-place performance of 4 minutes, 41.34 seconds in the 1,500-meter run, the final event of the competition.
He was sixth in the 100 (10.71 seconds), shot put (48 feet, 8 inches) and high jump (6-9.5).
Competitors are assigned points based on their times, heights and distances.
Black also leaped 23-7 in the long jump, ran the 400 in 48.78, ran the 110 high hurdles in 14.69, threw 137-4 in discus, cleared 14-7 in pole vault and threw 175-6 in javelin.
“I thought if I executed better, I could have gotten top five,” Black said. “I don’t want to say that was the goal, because the goal was just to go out there and perform, which I did. I thought if everything came together well, top five was definitely doable.”
The trials experience wasn’t as overwhelming this time around for Black after competing at iconic Hayward Field three years ago.
“That definitely helped a ton,” Black said of his previous trip to the trials. “I was a lot more comfortable coming into this meet. I wasn’t really too nervous, for the most part. I knew what to expect this time around, which gave me a little chip on my shoulder, but that helped tremendously. Getting a chance the last three or four years to go through the pro scene and attend a lot more national and international meets every year since the Olympic Trials made me feel pretty much at home, for the most part.”
Back in high school, Black couldn’t have fathomed competing against some of the greatest decathletes in the world.
A basketball player and golfer, Black didn’t come out for track and field until his junior year. Black, who helped Pinckney finish eighth in the 2012 state Division 1 golf tournament as its No. 2 man, tried track and field at the suggestion of his girlfriend — and now wife — Darby Meinecke.
After his one year as a basketball walk-on at SVSU didn’t go well, it was also his future wife who pointed him back toward track and field. Meinecke ran cross country and track for SVSU.
Black is unsure whether he will continue to compete for four more years for a shot at the next Olympic team, but he isn’t ready to give up decathlon any time soon.
RELATED: Brighton hurdler Erin Dowd ends track and field career at U.S. Olympic Team Trials
“I haven’t really figured that out yet,” he said. “I just take it season by season and see how the body holds up. I re-evaluated at the end of the year. I’ve been fortunate enough not to have any crazy injuries the last handful of years, which helped me go this far. I’ll see if I can still make it work and see what’s coming up next year.”
For his day job, Black has returned to one of his first loves, working as an assistant professional at The Kingsley Club near Traverse City. He also works as an assistant coach at SVSU during the winter.
Having an understanding boss allows Black to train and travel to continue competing at a high level in decathlon.
“Summer golf stuff is very busy,” Black said. “I’m working 35, 40 hours a week. I’m lucky enough my boss understands how much this stuff means to me. He totally gets it and has been cool about it the last three or four years. I can’t thank him enough. He’s understandable when I have to leave to go to Eugene for eight or nine days and when I make a team and have to go to Germany for eight or nine days. He completely gets it. He’s the best.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X@BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Pinckney decathlete Sam Black improves in second trip to Olympic Trials
