Paden Lewis thinks he can go even further.

The North Callaway alumnus just finished his senior season as an All-American honorable mention thrower for Southeast Missouri State by finishing 19th in the discus at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships from June 11-14. Lewis earned All-American status two previous times with a 12th-place finish in the weight throw at the 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships and a ninth-place finish in the shot put in the 2022 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships while with Quincy University.

The 2019 Class 3 shot put state champion said shot put has been his strongest event in college as well but found his best success this season in the discus.

“Discus was a late-season shocker,” Lewis said. “It started clicking. My previous coaches said that discus would be my main event, but I always thought discus is too far gone because I haven’t had consistent coaching or a consistent program with it. It was cool to be able to qualify for that and realize I hadn’t really scratched the surface with what I can do with discus.”

Lewis has collected a long list of honors in college including six Ohio Valley Conference championships across all four throwing events while with Southeast Missouri State along with three Ohio Valley Conference male field athlete of the year awards and three OVC male athlete of the championship honors. Lewis was a shot put Great Lakes Valley Conference champion with Quincy along with earning a male field athlete of the year award.

In the Southeast Missouri State record books, Lewis owns the indoor shot put record of 19.05 meters (or 62’6’’) and the outdoor discus record of 58.89 meters (or 193’2’’) with throws he made this year. The previous shot put record was set in 2012 and the previous discus record had stood since 1986. 

“I have pretty long arms, and that’s a big thing in discus,” Lewis said. “The best discus throwers in the world are usually tall and lanky. I really was able to use my arms to my advantage. The further you can keep the implement away from you, the more torque you can put on it when you throw.”

Compared to Division II nationals, Lewis said the Division I atmosphere was “mind-boggling” because he was competing against athletes from iconic institutions such as Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Oregon, USC and UCLA. The outdoor national championships this season were in Eugene, Oregon, and Lewis said those $270 million facilities are “next-level” and “insane.”

Lewis said he was glad he made throws count at the NCAA regional meet in College Station, Texas, to advance to the national stage because he scratched his first attempt. After converting his second throw, he realized he needed to correct some things and definitely did when he broke a 39-year-old school record on his final throw to finish 10th out of 12 national qualifiers.

“It was an awesome experience to do that on my last throw and make it to the national meet,” Lewis said.

When Lewis was a Thunderbird, he played football a couple years but focused solely on track and field as a senior. He won a state championship in the shot put that year and also finished as a runner-up in the discus. 

“I had a better chance for a scholarship in track and field because I just love it more,” Lewis said. “What you put in is what you’re going to get out of it.”

Lewis said individuals can thrive if they put in enough work with coaches in practice and then, while there is obviously a team element with scoring, individuals have to rise to the occasion at meets. He said track and field is “60% mental, 20% preparation and 20% execution.”

A track and field athlete should have an “ironclad” mindset, Lewis said, which is what was needed for him to accomplish his college goals. He said the goals of being All-American and all-conference started to materialize after he started college and was around other athletes with lofty aspirations.

“When I first started, I wasn’t making the top nine to make finals,” Lewis said. “I slowly progressed through the year, and in my first year, I was able to finish third place (in the shot put) as a true freshman in the GLVC, which was three feet off my high school PR.”

Lewis showed upside while throwing with a shot put four pounds heavier than the ball in high school. He said things started clicking in the other throwing events in his third year and significant progress was made when he went to Southeast Missouri State for his master’s degree.

“It just takes a lot of time,” Lewis said. “That’s the big thing in this sport is how long you do it for. That’s why you see a lot of people now come in already very good because they start throwing at a young age like 10 or 12. I didn’t start throwing until I was 16 and was only doing one event until senior year of high school.”

When he looks back on his career, Lewis said he is obviously proud of the All-American honors and conference championships but is most proud of his “decent and good mental fortitude” throughout the years. He said he has tried not to compare himself to others too much because he wanted to focus on being the best possible thrower he could be, which also benefited him as a man.

Lewis wants to clarify that he was looking back on his career thus far because he expressed interest in throwing past college. He said he will find a career to use his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cyber security and establish a living with those but also wants to ride this recent wave of success in discus. This entails training for the Olympic trials, focusing on the one event instead of the four in the past six years.

“I know I have a lot left on the bone when it comes to discus,” Lewis said. “This year was a major jump. Looking at my form and what I know now, there is so much left on there. I’m extremely blessed to have the career I had, and hopefully, we can keep it going.”