Keene State College Men's Cross Country

Pickering was named the head coach of the KSC cross country and track and field programs in May 2016.  Prior to that, he spent 18 months as the Owls' interim head coach. In his first season with the KSC cross country programs, the Owls repeated as LEC champions, and Pickering was named LEC Coach of the Year.  The KSC women qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time in nine years, while Hayden Patterson was the first male runner in three years to qualify for the NCAAs. Pickering previously spent three years as an assistant coach with the Owls, coaching sprinters, hurdlers, and multi-event athletes.  During this time, Keene State athletes set new college records at womens 55 meter hurdles, womens 60 meter hurdles, mens 400m dash, mens 4x400m relay, womens pentathlon, and womens heptathlon. In 2013 Janel Haggerty won the NCAA Division III national championship in the indoor pentathlon.  Pickering coached Haggerty at hurdles and long jump during her junior and senior campaigns. From 2008-2014 Pickering served as the head coach of boys and girls track & field at Monadnock Regional High School in nearby Swanzey. From 2011-2014 Pickerings high school teams won three state championships and three state runner-up trophies.  Since 2010 Monadnock track & field teams have won two multi-division Connecticut Valley Conference titles and five conference runner-up awards.   Monadnock athletes have won 36 New Hampshire state championship events and claimed four top-5 finishes in the New Hampshire State Decathlon and six top-5 finishes in the New Hampshire State Heptathlon.  Pickering also coached Nick Athanasopoulos , the 2011 New Hampshire State Decathlon champion. Athanasopoulos also placed seventh at the Nike Indoor Nationals in the Indoor Pentathlon.   Pickering has also coached boys and girls cross-country at Monadnock since 2012.  In 2013, in his second year coaching Monadnocks cross country teams, both the boys and girls squads took third place in their divisional state championship.  The Monadnock boys cross-country team won the schools first-ever Connecticut Valley Conference cross-country team title in 2014., whilet he 2014 Monadnock girls were the CVC runner-up. Pickering holds a bachelor's degree in math and physics from Colby College and a master's in physics from the University of Oregon.  An accomplished athlete at Colby, Pickering was a three-time All-America athlete, twice in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and once in the 1,500 meters. Pickering also was a part of six records at Colby, including the 1,000 yard, 1,000 meters, the mile, as well as the 1,600 meter sprint medley relay, the distance medley relay, and the 6,400 meter relay. A six-time captain at Colby, Pickering was also an NCAA national-qualifier in cross-country and a two-time all-NESCAC Conference cross-country runner. Pickering is a USATF-certified track & field coach.  He lives in Keene with his wife, Karen.