ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Three Red Dragons earned top 12 finishes and 10 runners in all placed in the top half of the 233-runner field as Cortland finished in third place out of 21 schools at the Roberts Wesleyan Harry F. Anderson Men's Cross Country Invitational.

The Division II host school won the event with 40 points, followed by Geneseo with 41 and Cortland with 104. Division I St. Bonaventure was fourth (135) and Fredonia placed fifth (170).

Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) hit the finish line in 10th place overall (ninth collegian) in 26:19.5, with Ryan Konotopskyj (East Amherst/Williamsville North) in 11th (26:28.9) and Chris Thorpe (Pine Bush) in 12th (26:29.7). Geneseo's Jackson Tate was the winner on the 8,000-meter layout at the Matt St. James Cross Country Trails in 25:25.6.

Grant Boyd (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) finished 26th in 26:57.6 and Mike Verde (Hopewell Junction/Arlington) was 65th in 28:07.5.

Five other Red Dragons were among the top 100 runners. Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) finished 72nd (28:16.6), Hunter Braun (Victor) was 79th (28:25.3) and Cody Laettner (Williamsville/Williamsville North) placed 90th (28:40.4). Brian Thurston (Long Beach) turned in a 93rd-place finish (28:47.7) and Pat Carew (Levittown/Division Avenue) was 97th (28:59.1).

Cortland is scheduled to compete at the Lehigh University Paul Short Run next Saturday.

Complete Results:
Men
Women

Coach's Corner - Comments from Head Coach Steve Patrick following the Roberts Wesleyan Invitational

We're quite excited about how today went!  Our men's team made some really great strides – sorry for the awful pun – with pretty much the entire roster.  We had a plan today of being extra relaxed through the first loop to work on closing hard through the second loop of the course, and it appeared to pay off quite well.  Obviously Cabel McCandless, Ryan Konotopskyj and Chris Thorpe did really great work to move up to 10th, 11th, and 12th, but our top four freshmen of Mike Verde, Clayton Santiago,  Hunter Braun and Cody Laettner also did a fantastic job of committing to work through the second half of the race and really move up through the field.  The top three guys are all in our all-time top 10 list for this course, while Mike and Clayton are now members of our all-time top 10 freshmen list on this course.
 
The Lady Red Dragons were not going to be outdone by the men!  We went into the meet with a similar goal of really pushing our limits on the third mile, and every single one of the women that raced today were able to accomplish that – every member of the team had the 3rd miles as their fastest mile on the day!  As a team we followed the race plan exceptionally well!  I think a little more impressively is that all but one of the ladies ran the 2nd half of the third mile much faster than any other part of the race.  With distance running it can be hard to know how to push yourself from far away, and the ladies did a tremendous job of it!  To be fair, the one member of the team that didn't get faster in the second half of that mile was only 1 second off what she ran in the first half.  Eliza Nichols joined our all-time top 10 list in a workout which is a great sign for the future, while freshmen Maddie Ciuffetelli and Courtney Schoepflin are now a part of the all-time top 10 freshmen list.  It's easy to see why we're so excited from the results of this weekend!