Student-Athlete + History = Daniel Lincoln

Daniel Lincoln was the walking embodiment of the term “student-athlete.”

Actually, if Lincoln had his druthers, he probably would have skipped the athlete part entirely — but, then, the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships wouldn’t have its only man to complete the steeplechase-10K double in meet history back in 2003.

See, growing up, Lincoln knew he wanted to be a doctor, so he set himself up on that path. He took the hardest classes in school and even left Conway (Ark.) High School to attend the prestigious Arkansas School of Mathematics and Science as a senior. Lincoln earned a full academic scholarship to attend the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he would earn a degree in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry and a minor in mathematics and then finish medical school there as well.

Cross country – and eventually track & field – was just a bonus extracurricular for Lincoln. It’s safe to say that he had some talent for it, though, as he finished seventh at the state cross country meet as a sophomore, eventually won the state meet as a senior after students at ASMS convinced him to go out for the team and dropped a 4:16 mile at the Texas Relays after taking up track as well.

Lincoln found his way into the office of legendary Arkansas coach John McDonnell on his tour for incoming students and asked if he could join the program as a walk-on freshman. McDonnell agreed, even though Lincoln later said, “He pretended to know who I was when I asked.”

Over the next four years, Lincoln developed into one of the finest distance runners the program has ever seen, racking up four individual NCAA titles, including three consecutive steeplechase victories between 2001 and 2003, in addition to a 10K crown in the final year. Yes. You read that correctly: Lincoln completed the only steeplechase-10K double in meet history as a senior.

Let’s take a close look at the 2003 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where Lincoln had a challenging schedule in front of him. He entered the meet as the two-time defending champion in the steeplechase with victories by 0.54 seconds in 2001 and 4.17 seconds in 2002 and would contest the prelims of that event on Wednesday, a 10K final on Thursday and a potential steeplechase final on Friday.

After easily making it through to the steeplechase final, Lincoln turned his attention to the 10K. He and teammate Alistair Cragg dueled throughout the race with Lincoln edging Cragg by 0.09 seconds at the finish line, matching the smallest margin of victory in meet history (John Scherer of Michigan also won by 0.09 seconds in 1988).

With 13,000 meters of racing already in his legs, Lincoln didn’t show worse for wear on Friday. He ran like the two-time defending champion he was and won by nearly three seconds to match James Mulyala of UTEP as the only men to have won three consecutive national titles in meet history (Across the other divisions, four men have also accomplished said feat in NCAA Division II, while no man has done so yet in NCAA Division III).

Lincoln eventually enrolled into medical school, all while continuing his post-collegiate running career. He won the U.S. steeplechase title in 2004, placed 11th at the Athens Olympics that same year and not too long after, broke the 21-year-old American record in the event.