All-Americans
Stunning performances by UND’s Jadyn Keeler and Louis-Lys Fanucchi highlight last week’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The phrases “first ever” and “second ever” appear lots of times in the paragraphs that follow – and with good reason, as UND Athletics had to reach for superlatives multiple times to describe the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships honors won last week by Jadyn Keeler and Louis-Lys Fanucchi.
Those honors very much include All-American finishes, as Keeler earned First Team All-American in the 10,000-meter run and Second Team in the 5000-meter run, while Fanucchi took home Second Team All-American honors in the 3000-meter steeplechase finals.
Visit the North Dakota Fighting Hawks website for much more information about these exceptional student athletes.
Jadyn Keeler
One of the most storied, successful, historic and decorated careers in North Dakota history came to a close on Saturday night at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships as Jadyn Keeler competed in her final race in a Fighting Hawk uniform.
The senior completed her second of two bids at the national meet with action in the women’s 5000-meter run and again put on a historic show.
Keeler began the race in comfortable position toward the middle of the pack of 24 athletes but — much like she did on Thursday night in the 10,000-meter run — she quickly took the lead. After forcing the field to follow her pace, the competition turned up a notch and soon resulted a clocking of 15:27.43 for the Ontario, Canada-native, just .56 seconds off her own school record.
The time resulted in a 13th-place finish alongside Second Team All-American honors for Keeler, in addition to her First Team All-American honors earned from the 10,000-meter run earlier in the meet.
With the honor, Keeler becomes the first-ever three-time Division I outdoor track All-American in program history and first-ever UND athlete to earn two All-America honors at the same national meet. She is just the third-ever UND athlete to reach a second career NCAA D1 outdoor championship meet, the first-ever athlete to earn two outdoor national bids in the same season and remains as the only female track athlete to ever compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships for North Dakota.
An already-remarkable career ended with another sparkling installment during the 2025-26 season for Keeler. She earned a NCAA West Preliminary Round qualification for the 5000-meter run at the Bryan Clay Invitational after running a time of 15:26.98. But that time was narrowly bested at the regional meet at 15:26.87, resetting Keeler’s own school record and personal best to earn her bid to the national championships.
Her senior outdoor season saw a collection of four new school records (1500-meter run, 3000-meter steeplechase, 5000-meter run and 10,000-meter run), three gold medals and one silver medal alongside Women’s Track MVP of the Championship honors at the conference meet and three new personal bests.
Louis-Lys Fanucchi
After securing a bid to the 3000-meter steeplechase finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Louis-Lys Fanucchi’s season came to a close on a national high note as he became a Second Team All-American on Friday evening.
The accolade came as the Frenchman finished 12th overall in the finals with his clocking of 8:55.74, greatly improving from his No. 22 NCAA rank heading into the meet. Fanucchi became the first-ever UND male athlete to reach an event finals at the national championships and earned the highest-ever placing at the national meet in program history for the UND men.
It also marks the second-ever time an athlete has represented the Fighting Hawk men at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the second-ever time a competing UND male athlete claimed Second Team All-American honors and the second-ever time a UND athlete appeared in the steeplechase (all previously done by Luke Labette in 2024, who finished 16th in the semifinal).
Fanucchi’s path to the NCAA Championship finals was a blazing one after a pair of electric showings on the track in post-season competition. He initially booked his spot to the NCAA West Preliminary Round with his time of 8:42.15 in the steeplechase in his second appearance on the track of the season. when he won the event at the Stanford Invitational.
Then, at the regional meet, Fanucchi claimed an eighth-place finish after clocking a then-personal best and school record time of 8:33.56 in Fayetteville, Ark.
But he wasn’t even close to being done.
Fanucchi then topped that in dramatic fashion as he ran an 8:26.57 in the event semifinals earlier this week, again breaking the school record and rewriting his previous personal best while placing him ninth overall in the field for a championship finals appearance.
Those times are proof of a season that was one for the record books as he broke or rewrote a school record four times during the year. The Mons En Baroeul, France-native twice broke the 3000-meter steeplechase record while also rewriting the men’s 1500-meter and 5000-meter run times. He also collected Men’s Track MVP of the Championship honors at the conference meet after scoring and placing in the top-four of three races and claim a pair of silver medals in the 1500-meter run and 3000-meter steeplechase.
And the best part of it all is that all of these accolades came in just his second outdoor track and field season.
