Cross Country | 9/22/2020 8:00:00 AM
While Division III fall sports are on pause at Clarkson University, the Athletic Department will look back on memorable moments of yesteryear. This will include only the five fall sports that have been suspended for 2020 (cross country, golf, men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball). Check back on Tuesdays and Thursdays for these memorable moments.
It has been decades since the Clarkson University Cross Country team ran in a dual-meet or even a true tri-meet as the program has shifted more to invitational races where there are anywhere from 4 to 40 teams competing in mass starts. Even if the Golden Knights continued that style of competition today, it is doubtful that anyone wearing the Green and Gold would have the track record that Pete Rickert posted in his first two years at Clarkson.
Over the course of his first two seasons, Rickert won 17 of 19 dual- or tri-meet races, setting numerous course records along the way, and in the two events in which he did not pace the pack, he finished as runner-up. While that is impressive production for any runner, Rickert's most significant accomplishment came on October 30, 1976 when he became the first Clarkson student-athlete to win the conference title as the top runner in the ICAC.
Rickert, a native of Syracuse, NY, ran the 5.3 mile event in 28 minutes, 22 seconds, nearly 20 seconds faster than the second-place finisher of the 52-man field. The win capped off an outstanding freshman campaign in which he won every one of his races.
A year later, Rickert took third at the conference meet and third at regionals, helping him advance to the 1977 NCAA Division III National Championships, hosted by Case Western Reserve University. There, Rickert finished 235th among 396 runners on the muddy course (it snowed the night before) with a time of 29:08. He remained the only Clarkson University runner to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships until 2011.
