TOWSON, Md. --- Moravian College senior distance runner Peter Gingrich has been selected as the 2021 Landmark Conference Senior Scholar-Athlete for Men's Outdoor Track & Field.
The Landmark Conference selects 22 senior scholar athletes each year to recognize the top student-athlete in each sport based on academics and athletics. The honorees must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20 and are selected by a committee of Landmark Conference officers, athletics directors, senior woman administrators and sports information directors. Chosen at the conclusion of each sport season, the 10 winter honorees are being announced this week and next week.
This past spring, Gingrich earned Landmark All-Conference Second Team honors in 800-meter run with runner-up time of 1:56.89, and he also finished third in 4x400-meter relay in 3:36.70. In 2019, he was fourth in 4x400-meter relay in 3:27.41, fifth in 800-meter run in 1:56.46 and sixth in 1,500-meter run in 4:06.71 at Landmark Conference Championships with his 800-meter and 1,500-meter times being career bests. As a freshman in 2018, Gingrich finished ninth in the 800-meter run in 1:59.29 and 14th in the 1,500-meter run in 4:14.89 at the Landmark Conference Championships. He helped the 2018 and 2019 squads win Landmark Conference titles.
Gingrich was a two-time Landmark All-Conference Second Team honoree at the Indoor Championships with a runner-up in the distance medley relay in 2018 and the 4x400-meter relay in 2019 while helping the Greyhounds to Landmark Conference Championships in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He also competed on Moravian's Cross Country Team and had a career-best 8K time of 27:18.7 at Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle in 2019.
Off the track and cross country course, Gingrich has made Moravian's Dean's Honors List eight times as well as being a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society. He will be an eight-time member of the Landmark Conference Academic Honor Roll - three times in the fall, twice in the winter and three times in the spring. Gingrich is also a member of the Math Honors Society and the Modern Language Honor Society at Moravian.
"Peter is one of the strongest students we've had for our men's program in years and earning our athletic department's Senior Scholar Athlete award is a reflection of that," commented Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "Additionally, Peter has donated his time serving as an RA in addition to a tutor for most of his time while at Moravian, not only with the school, but unofficially with our team. He's joined myriad impromptu Zooms and meetings with teammates to help them with math and other subjects sometimes in the eleventh hour.
"As an athlete, Peter has been a staple for our mid-distance crew and nearly won Landmarks this spring in the 800 with a bold move to take control of the race," Baumann continued. "He was hindered by an injury in March that really set back his training, but because he's so disciplined throughout the year, he was able to minimize the fitness losses to run well at Landmarks and qualify for the AARTFC Championship meet. It's unfortunate nobody got to see this "officially" but he was having an exceptional fall as well and ended up running a 15:50 5K for a big PR with a few of his teammates towards the end of our fall semester.
"Finally, Peter has been an exceptional leader for our program. He's mature, responsible, focused, and leads by example on a daily basis. He's able and willing to respectfully demand the best from runners on the team too to help keep them on task. Overall, he's been an incredible representative for our teams and Moravian College," finished Baumann.
Gingrich is Moravian's 36th Landmark Conference Senior Scholar-Athlete since the conference began in 2007-08, and he is the fifth men's outdoor track & field student-athlete to be honored and tenth overall selection from the Moravian men's track & field program.