BETHLEHEM, PA. – Senior Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) finished first out of 326 runners and was one of four Red Dragons in the top 35 in the White Division of the Lehigh University Paul Short Run.

Cortland finished in second place out of 43 teams in the race with 124 points, one point ahead of both Vassar and York (Pa.) and 10 better than Kutztown. Wesleyan (Conn.) won the race with 104 points.

McCandless posted a winning time of 25:28.7 over the 8,000-meter course. Chad Dunham (Central Square/Paul V. Moore) was fifth in 25:41.2, Mike Verde (Hopewell Junction/Arlington) was 11th in 25:52.7, and Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) finished 35th in 26:22.9.

Cortland's next four finishers all ended in the top third of the field. Ryan Konotopskyj (East Amherst/Williamsville North) placed 73rd (26:53.2), with Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood) just a few spots back in 76th (26:54.4). James Forte (Merrick/Sanford H. Calhoun) was 96th (27:09.2) and Dan Gross (East Moriches/Center Moriches) crossed the line in 107th place (27:19.8).

The Red Dragons will head north next Saturday to compete at the St. Lawrence University Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational.

Complete Results

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

This was a pretty great day for us down in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania!  The Paul Short Run is one of the best collegiate cross country meets in the country, with 4 different races per gender for collegians.  Being a part of that atmosphere is just a great learning experience and opportunity for our team, and we're thrilled that they took advantage of it!
 
The men had a pretty great day!  Of the 15 men that ran, I'm pretty sure that 13 ran their fastest 8k ever, and the other two are returning from injuries that significantly limited their training through the summer.  It was a lot of fun to be able to tell that guys that the last time we had a team that put three men under 26 minutes – 2013 – we were able to do some pretty special things at the conference and regional meet.  Of course 2019 is a different year, but it is a good marker that we are on the right track as a program!
 
A wise coach once told me to never underestimate the value of winning, so we definitely want to celebrate Cabel McCandless's accomplishment today.  To provide a little context, at the two-mile mark where I was recording splits and yelling things to them that probably just sounds like gibberish, Cabel and Chad Dunham were probably in about 30th place.  They made a really smooth move together to take over the lead somewhere around the 2.5 mile mark, and really dropped the hammer on the lead group over the 4th mile.  We've known that they were physically capable of this for a while, but it's great to see them realize it mentally now!  The rest of the team did pretty similar things in terms of being really assertive through the middle of the race and working with each other to get some big improvements.  It's also great that the guys are recognizing that there is still a lot of work to do; while this was a nice accomplishment, we don't want to allow this to be the highlight of the season.
 
The Red Dragon women had another strong weekend as well, pretty filled with PRs for the 6k distance.  Overall we ran pretty tough, but didn't quite reach the level we are capable of yet.  All fifteen women that raced today had a VERY fast last 1200 meters – which is a good sign in that it shows that physically they still had something 'left' and that we can go faster overall.  We're certainly quite pleased about how we did today; it's more about that we have to reset our expectations and reset how we see ourselves.  Having that knowledge should be a great confidence boost for us moving forward!  Sophomore Sydney Smith (which is fun to say aloud!) is a good representation of this – a week ago she ran a very good race at Letchworth to PR with a 23:50, running miles of 6:31, 6:24, and 6:18; her final 1200 was at 6:08 pace.  That was really good!  At Paul Short, she ran 6:07, 6:09, and 6:51; her final 1200 was at 5:24 pace!  Now her PRE is 23:11!  It's a fantastic step in the right direction, but we know – and most importantly she knows – that she can go even faster still!
 
We're excited to head up to Canton, NY this weekend to preview the Atlantic Regionals course.  We're more focused on training through this meet and working to close the spread of our team, which will be good for us down the road in the championship meets.