Grinnell College Athletics Hall of Fame
Adam Dalton ’16 not only enjoyed success as a student-athlete at Grinnell, but continues to make an impact in running both with his performances in numerous areas.
Dalton made an immediate impression at Grinnell, placing 12th at the 2012 Midwest Conference Cross Country Championships. That performance marked the beginning of a remarkable run, as he became one of only a select group of runners to earn All–Midwest Conference cross country honors in all four seasons. He placed 13th in 2013, second in 2014, and sixth in 2015 helping lead Grinnell to conference team titles in each of his four years. He capped his senior season with All-Region honors by finishing 18th, after a season where he was primarily sidelined by injury. Dalton currently ranks 23rd on Grinnell’s all-time cross-country list with a time of 23:54.
His success extended beyond cross country to the track, where he also excelled. Dalton claimed five Midwest Conference titles during his career, beginning in 2014 when he won the indoor mile in 4:27.86. In 2016, he swept the 3,000- and 5,000-meter races (8:48.78 and 15:17.35, respectively), earning Midwest Conference Indoor Track Performer of the Year honors. He carried that momentum into the outdoor season, capturing titles in the 5,000 (15:42.27) and 10,000 (32:46.06). Dalton currently owns the program’s ninth-fastest time in the 10,000 meters.
Between 2017 and 2020, Dalton ranked among the 150 fastest men’s marathoners in the United States and earned a spot in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials. He became the first male—and the third Grinnellian overall—to compete in the U.S. Olympic marathon trials. He continues to compete in - and win - trail races of 50K and longer throughout the United States.
An Economics and Chinese double major at Grinnell who received an M.A. in City and Metropolitan Planning from the University of Utah, Dalton now formally works as an independent consultant for licensed cannabis businesses with respect to regulatory, real estate, and licensing compliance. Outside of work, he lives 900’ from the U.S./MX border with his long-term male partner and dog and enjoys running and hiking in the U.S./MX borderland sky islands region in Southern Arizona. Outside of athletics, Dalton aims to facilitate regional support for arts, culture, and human rights and accordingly is a lead coordinator of the Nogales International Film Festival. He is also working to create a public sculpture park on the U.S./MX border in Nogales, AZ. He constantly strives to show the objective complex lived reality of the U.S./MX border in opposition to the propaganda shown by popular U.S. media and partisan political messaging.
