11/18/2022 10:30:00 AM | Cross Country, Track and Field
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By: Dylan Greene, Cal Poly Athletics Communications
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — A year ago, Jake Ritter's cross country career at Cal Poly appeared to be over.
A stress reaction in his right hip forced his fifth season to be cut short just two meets in.
It was the first significant injury of Ritter's running career. At first, Ritter thought the nagging pain would just go away if he kept running, but an MRI revealed something more serious.
"The first thing I saw was if you keep running you can break your hip," he said, "and that wasn't something I was really expecting. I knew it was a big deal, but I didn't think it would be as bad as it was."
The injury meant six straight weeks of no running — the longest break of Ritter's career. Immediately, the thought of applying for a medical redshirt crossed Ritter's mind. His former coach Mark Conover, who passed away in April after a courageous battle with cancer, agreed.
The NCAA granted the request, giving Ritter one final shot at some unfinished business.
"I'm so glad it went through because otherwise I wouldn't be here today," he said.
Redemption was certainly on Ritter's mind when he decided to apply for a medical redshirt. After having back-to-back cross country seasons (2020, 2021) taken away due to COVID-19 and injury, Ritter was determined to return for his teammates, not any individual accolades he could obtain.
"It was all about the team," he said. "My teammates are the best guys that I know. We're best friends, we're basically family and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them.
I knew I had something in me like this season, but I think I would have been fine leaving that behind if it wasn't for the team. I knew we had a really good shot at making it to nationals as a team and while we didn't secure that this year, I think just having that goal all season was really huge and brought me back."
Speaking of this season, Ritter has been unstoppable, cementing his legacy as one of the greatest distance runners in program history.
At UC Riverside's Ag/Ops Course on Oct. 29, Ritter obliterated the record books, running a Big West meet record time of 23:27.4 to become the first athlete in conference history to claim three individual cross country titles (2018, 2019 and 2022).
Ritter holds his third Big West individual title.
He crossed the finish line 14 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher to power the Cal Poly men to their 18th Big West title, first since 2019, and their lowest team score (22) since posting 18 at the 2016 conference meet.
Becoming a three-time Big West champion was a significant accomplishment for Ritter.
"I don't have any school records for Cal Poly," he said, "I don't have my name like cemented as the best ever that's run a certain distance. I wanted to do something that no one even in The Big West had ever done and to me one of the easiest things, given that I already had two titles under my belt, was to go for a third, and I couldn't be happier with that. It just feels really good to have that title."
Ritter followed up that historic performance with another less than two weeks later at the NCAA West Regional hosted by Washington. He placed 12th with a personal-best 10K time of 28:43.3 to punch his ticket to the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma, this Saturday. He also led the Mustangs to their best team finish at regionals (eighth) since 2013.
When Ritter crossed the finish line at regionals, he didn't think he had done enough to make it to the national meet as an individual.
"I thought I was done," he said.
But the Mustang coaching staff reassured the Citrus Heights native he had qualified, and then the realization of what he had accomplished set in.
"Honestly, that was like the second time in my life that I've almost happy cried," Ritter said. "That was one of the best moments of my life for sure."
Ritter just missed out on an individual berth to nationals in 2019, finishing 29th, making last Friday's triumph at Chambers Creek Regional Park even sweeter.
It's been a special final season for Ritter, one that not even a minor preseason injury could derail. In fact, the minor setback actually worked out in Ritter's favor, he said, helping him endure the grind of a long season.
"It's played out maybe even better than I would have hoped," Ritter said about his final season. "We've never really had a team this strong since I've been here … and the meets we went to this cross country season were the most fun that I've ever had, and coach [Ryan Vanhoy] would say the same."
Given how long Ritter has been around the program, teammates have thrown away jokes about him being a "fossil" and "grandpa" all season long, and he loves it.
Outside of cross country, Ritter has had quite the career as a Mustang, qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminaries in the 10,000-meter in 2021 and 2022, earning Cal Poly Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year twice and making Cal Poly's Dean's List in six separate quarters as an undergrad. He also owns the fourth-fastest 10,000-meter time in school history and the seventh-fastest 5,000-meter time.
When Ritter takes the line 8:10 a.m. PST Saturday for the start of the men's 10K race at Oklahoma State's Greiner Family Cross Country Course, he will become the first athlete to represent Cal Poly at nationals since 2018.
With the pressure off, Ritter is looking forward to representing Cal Poly one last time in Stillwater. Regardless of what happens Saturday, Ritter plans on running for the rest of his life. He's even scheduled to compete in the California International Marathon in just over two weeks.
Ritter said he will feel all the emotions when he steps across the finish line for the final time as a Mustang on Saturday, but he's grateful for all the memories Cal Poly gave him.
"I'm going to continue running," he said. "It's not like life is over, I'm just on to different things, but I'm definitely going to miss the team the most.
I've always loved to be a Mustang."
You can watch Ritter compete one last time Saturday morning as the NCAA Championships will be televised live on ESPNU starting at 7 a.m.
