Sam Hydro tuned in to the NCAA Track and Field Championships earlier this month at historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon and liked what he saw.

Not only is Hydro an avid fan of the sport, he’s also a student of the game.

So when the Jim Thorpe graduate started dissecting the races, he noticed a few similarities during the men’s 800.

“I was watching the East and West preliminaries and then I watched all the rounds at the Championships,” said Hydro. “It was crazy how, in the 800 (won by USC’s Isaiah Jewett in 1:44.68), some of those guys were coming through the first lap at the same time I would come through sometimes, they’d come through at 54 (seconds). Sometimes, even at 600, they came through the same time. And I was saying to my dad, ‘Wow, I’d still be in the race with these guys right now.’

“Even some of them finished just a couple seconds faster than my PR this year. It’s so crazy to think that it’s just right there. It’s not too far away.”

After spending two years honing his craft at Iowa Western Community College, Hydro took another step toward making it a reality when he announced he would continue his track and field career at Saint Joseph’s University.

“A major reason I wanted to go to a Division 1 school, and I know there are so many Division 2 schools that are even better than some Division I programs, but I always wanted to go Division 1 because my end goal is one day to make it to those Championships,” he said. “And you can’t make it to the Division 1 Championships if you’re D2 or D3.”

Hydro’s trajectory has been trending up throughout his career. In his final race at Jim Thorpe, Hydro dropped a personal best 1:54.24 to place second at the PIAA Track and Field Championships his senior year.

It was a result that has served as motivation in the years that have followed.

“I think I always had the plan early on in high school that I knew I wanted to run in college,” said Hydro, who was also a state qualifier in cross country at Jim Thorpe. “I guess I never knew how far it could go, or I never really knew the competition in college then. I didn’t really understand the times and everything. But I would definitely say my junior year when I qualified (for states), I had run that 1:57 and knew a lot of colleges would be interested.

“But I would say the moment that really got me the most was my final race in high school at states, just running the 1:54 and knowing that’s like five seconds slower to qualify you for the Division 1 Championships. And five seconds is a lot in the 800, but if you look at it over a couple years of training, it’s not something that’s unrealistic for me, that I could be there.”

At Iowa Western, a program that has produced 17 NJCAA National individual champs and secured the 2021 women’s indoor national title, Hydro has lowered his 800 time to 1:52.61, set at the NJCAA Region XI Championships in early May. He also qualified for the NJCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships with the runner-up finish, an event that was canceled his freshman season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As a member of the 4x800 relay, Hydro ran the anchor leg and helped the team to a fourth-place finish with a time of 7:48.63.

Hydro also placed ninth in the 800 at the Drake Relays in April, and was first at the Emporia State Midwest Classic and the Emporia State Relays.

Those results came off a stellar indoor season that saw Hydro place eighth in the 1000 (2:29.75) at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships to earn All-American honors.

Hydro has also continued lessons learned from his time at Jim Thorpe.

“One thing I could definitely say carried over was the weightlifting and strength training we did with Coach (Frank) Miller at Jim Thorpe, because we started doing a lot of that at Iowa Western and that’s probably one of my favorite things to do outside of running,” said Hydro, “which is something that really helps, along with plyometrics, yoga and all of that stuff we were doing in high school, and it made for a really easy transition.”

As his time with the Olympians wound down, Hydro’s path for continuing his career at the next level became clear.

“I really wasn’t in touch with any other schools before I went there,” Hydro said of the state meet. “It was just kind of like, ‘All right, Division 1 is out of the picture,’ and I wasn’t talking to anyone, and then I found out about JUCO and realized that was what I had to do if I want to end up going Division 1. I definitely was betting on myself, because I trusted myself; I knew what my potential was and what I could do.

“As long as I back it up, it’s all going to work out. I knew that as long as I got my grades right, the times and my running would all back it up as well. And it all just worked out perfectly. I wouldn’t take that back at all what I did.”

Hydro’s interest in Saint Joe’s and the school’s interest in him picked up this fall toward the end of his cross country season, where he missed All-American status by one spot, placing 26th in 26:40.6 (8K) while the team also finished third at the NJCAA National Championships in November, their best finish in program history.

The school was Hydro’s top choice during the recruiting process. He also felt a connection to Saint Joe’s middle distance coach Chris Tarello, who, like Hydro, ran a 1:54 in high school and spent two years at a junior college before transferring to a Division 1 school during his career.

Hydro, who plans to study business, will concentrate on track at the Philadelphia school, which will be closer to home.

“That’s something that I was really looking forward to, that I’ll only be an hour and 20 minutes away from my house opposed to the 18 hours at Iowa Western,” said Hydro. “I think my dad came to two meets the entire time I was there. But now it will be nice because my parents can just take a little drive to come see me race whenever, and I can always come home whenever and they can come visit me. It’s just way more convenient.”

Home since late May, Hydro has started to get back into the swing of things as he prepares for the next chapter in his career.

While the future still has plenty of unknowns, Hydro knows he’s on the right track.

“Since states in high school until now, this has probably been two of the best years of my life,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed it at Iowa Western. Just seeing the progression of how much faster I’ve gotten; new friends, new people, just a totally new place to live, it was such a great experience.”