In the weeks leading up to the Grinnell College track and field indoor opener, Lucas Fadden `26 knew he was due for a fast race.
Fadden’s race on Dec. 5 was more than just fast.
He finished the 60-meter final in a historic 6.66 seconds, the third fastest time in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III history.
“When I saw the number, I didn’t really believe it at first,” Fadden said. “If you told me that I was going to run that before the meet, I would have been amazed.”
Fadden’s time has all but officially earned him a spot in the 2026 NCAA Division III indoor championships this March.
Last year, a time of 6.82 seconds qualified for the championships.
“I was just hoping for 6.81,” said Jeff Pedersen, head track and field coach.
Fadden had already proved himself in the outdoor season with two top-eight national finishes in both the 2024 and 2025 NCAA Division III outdoor championships.
After a broken toe kept him from competing in last year’s indoor season, Fadden returned to the field house this season to compete in his first indoor race since 2024, this time ready to prove himself once more.
Pedersen knew during the indoor opener’s race that Fadden, well outpacing second-place finisher Kendric Achebe of Simpson College, had shattered his expectations of simply achieving a qualifying time.
“When he was pulling away from him towards the end of the race, it was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be fast,’” Pedersen said.
The only two sprinters who have run faster than Fadden in D-III are Sam Blaskowski of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Davian Willems of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Now, Fadden’s time of 6.66 has set the pace for the rest of his races.
“The way track works, you’re happy about the time for 30 minutes to an hour, then it just kind of settles as the standard in your mind,” Fadden said.
Since the opener, Fadden has kept giving strong performances, shattering his own school record for the 200-meter dash on Jan. 23 and running a strong 6.77 in the 60-meter at the Jan. 31 Grinnell Indoor Invitational. For his 200-meter dash performance, Fadden will also likely compete at the indoor championships.
This season, Fadden’s chances may be a bit different than they have been in the past. Record-holder Blaskowski graduated from UW-La Crosse this past May. And Fadden has beaten second-fastest sprinter Willems before in the 100-meter dash for the 2025 outdoor championships.
“There’s a vacancy now,” said Fadden’s teammate James Snyder `26. “Someone’s got to be the champion.”
And Fadden wants that spot.
“All those guys are thinking ‘It’s my turn,’” Pedersen said of Fadden’s competitors. “Whatever happens is going to happen, but it’s super exciting for him to be in the mix.”
Fadden hopes to perform better than his fifth-place finish nationally in the 2025 outdoor championships. When Fadden was leaving the championships this past May, his mind was already set on a national championship win.
“That was his mindset — next year’s my turn,” Pedersen said.
Fadden said he can’t predict what time he might run, but his goal is first place. “It’s not about the number,” he said. “For me, right now, if I’m going to throw out a goal, it’s to win the national championship indoors. I think the time comes with that.”
And Fadden has a history of outperforming expectations. In his first outdoor championships appearance in 2024, Fadden came into the race with the fifteenth best time and, as Fadden calls it, snuck into the 100-meter finals with a seventh overall best time out of 24 runners in the preliminaries. The top eight finishers in the preliminaries advanced to the final.
Fadden came out of that championship with an All-America athlete designation and an eighth-place finish. That NCAA finish was the best for Grinnell College in over 20 years.
In 2025, he exceeded expectations again with a finish seven places higher than his 12th-place seed that he entered the championships with.
“That’s just a common theme with Lucas, is outperforming expectations and beating seed times and beating guys that are faster than him,” Snyder said.
Fadden chalks it up to his ability to perform and execute. “Track’s all about dealing with pressure,” he said. “I operate well under pressure.”
In his first year at Grinnell, Fadden was named Newcomer of the Year after a strong performance in the 2023 Midwest Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. Pedersen said, though, that it was Fadden’s sophomore year where he really started to shine.
“His sophomore year was really pretty special,” he said. “Just dropping time week after week.”
Fadden always had an idea of making nationals since his first year, Pedersen said. It just took some time for his training to accumulate into making the cut.
Fadden still remembers the meet that first qualified him to compete in the 2024 outdoor championships. “The feeling you get when you do something you thought you could never do, it just feels amazing,” he said.
Now, the pressure of another national championship weighs on Fadden.
“He’s got eyes on him from everybody in the nation, and he’s never really had that for indoor track,” Snyder said.
“I know this is his dream,” Snyder added. “I think he can do it, and I think he knows he can do it.”
