CLINTON, N.Y. – Four Red Dragons finished in the top quarter of the field, led by a 16th-place showing from senior Chad Dunham (Central Square/Paul V. Moore), at the Hamilton College Men's Cross Country Short Course Invitational.

Dunham covered the 5,000-meter course at the Hamilton College Golf Course in 15:59.9. He was the seventh Division III finisher. Le Moyne's Chris Davitt won the race in 15:32.0.

Cortland finished fourth out of 10 schools in the final team standings with 133 points, four better than Le Moyne. Roberts Wesleyan (20), Ithaca (91) and Hamilton (95) took the top three spots.

Senior Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) finished in 22nd place (16:07.0), while sophomores Mike Verde (Hopewell Junction/Arlington) and Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) were 31st (16:14.2) and 32nd (16:16.2), respectively. A total of 146 runners competed.

Rounding out Cortland's top seven finishers were senior James Forte (Merrick/Sanford H. Calhoun) in 47th place (16:33.1), freshman Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) in 52nd place (16:38.5) and freshman Ryan Cory (Beacon) in 53rd place (16:38.8). Two other Red Dragons earned spots in the top half of the field – freshmen Jose Cruz (Ellenville) (63rd, 16:48.9) and Gavin Watkins (Endicott/Owego Free Academy) (65th, 16:52.4).

Cortland heads to the University of Rochester next Saturday for the Yellowjacket Invitational.

Complete Results:
Men
Women

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

If I were to grade the team's performance today, both the men and the women would have pretty similar scores.  For effort and toughness, both teams did pretty darn well – maybe a B+ or an A-.  And I'm usually known as a tough grader!  The women ran on a course that was a lot harder and slower than last week, and all nearly all were close to or significantly improved in terms of times, which is awesome!  Both teams had the chance to race a bit of a deeper field, which is also important as we are learning how to work together and compete well.
 
Both teams didn't do as well with decision making today, which was a little disappointing, but offers a good learning experience for us.  Mis-steps in the execution of our racing plan are going to happen, and offer great chances to develop the skills necessary to not repeat them.  A great number of the team finished the final mile or half-mile of the race quite quickly today, which is a good portend for the remainder of the season!
 
The Lady Red Dragons kept their 1-5 spread under a minute, which is a really nice achievement, and a lot of credit goes to junior Cat Zamroz for really pushing to keep the gap close as our 5th finisher today!  We had a lot of excellent teamwork and pace groups today, which is exciting to see!  We also had our entire team that ran today under the 20-minute mark, which is a nice accomplishment for the program.  I should also make mention of freshman McKenzie Dombroski coming through the line first for the team in 24th place!  It's always great to have newcomers race so tough!
 
The men had their spread from 1-9 under a minute, so we are pretty darn pleased with our depth and our pack mentality right now.  While the depth in our freshman class has been pretty special this year, freshmen Cameron Szabo and Ryan Cory performed quite well this morning in the race, doing an excellent job of hanging on to some of our upperclassmen to get pulled through to a nice performance.
 
Next week we have our first chance to race the 'championship distance' of 6000 meters for the women and 8000 meters for the men at the University of Rochester Invitational.