Wichita State’s track and field athletes aren’t the only ones getting national attention this summer.

WSU head track and field coach Steve Rainbolt added to his resume this summer when he became the men’s decathlon head coach for Team USA at the Pan American Combined Events Cup held in Ottawa, Canada July 16-18.

“It was a terrific honor to be selected to be the coach for the Pan American Cup,” Rainbolt said. “This is good for our school. It’s good for our program to have that type of recognition.”

Rainbolt worked with Josh Priester of Santa Barbara, Calif., who was the women’s heptathlon coach.

They pushed each others’ athletes to the fullest, despite not being their daily coaches.

“We’re not the coaches that work with them all year long, so I sit down with those guys and say ‘My job here is to do everything in my power so you have a great competition, but we must operate as partners,’” Rainbolt said.

With this, Rainbolt urged his athletes to explain what they’ve been working on in competitions, training and technique so he could better understand their needs.

However, because each athlete is unique regarding athletic form and style, Rainbolt was aware he needed to be careful when coaching, so the men would not discard their usual approach to their events.

“I can tell you things that I might notice,” Rainbolt said to his athletes, “but I don’t want to interject something that might throw you off technically.”

Unfortunately, Rainbolt’s guidance to Team USA could only do so much, as this decathlon was their fifth, sixth or seventh competition in months.

“I felt bad for the athletes. In the United States season, those guys get to the completion pretty spent and pretty tired,” Rainbolt said. “Those guys were running on fumes.”

For instance, Devin Dick, a Kansas State collegian and Big 12 champion, scored 7100 points at Pan American, while he scored 7800 at the Big 12 Championship.

“All three of our USA Track and Field guys were good athletes, terrific guys and competed hard, but they just didn’t have any gas left in the tank,” Rainbolt said.

Team USA Men’s finished third in the competition. Cuba came in first.

The women’s team, coached by Priester, achieved a second place finish, but Rainbolt noted success once again comes down to how rested the athlete is.

“The women were not as tired from their season as the guys were. The men’s decathlon is a little more demanding than the women’s heptathlon,” Rainbolt said. “It just takes more out of you. It’s 10 events versus seven events.”

While Rainbolt would have liked a better turnout, he was still thrilled with the opportunity he had with Team USA.

“The experience was fabulous, and I really enjoyed getting to be a part of it,” he said. “Ottawa, Canada, was a beautiful city, and the young people that represented the United States were terrific.”