LOUISVILLE, KY. – Cortland junior
Ryan Cory (Beacon) earned All-America honors with a 40th-place finish out of 299 runners at the NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championships.
Cory covered the 8,000-meter course at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in 24 minutes, 23.1 seconds. He claimed the 40th and final All-America spot in the race by just two tenths of a second. Cory was the second-fastest finisher among runners from the Niagara Region, placing just behind Geneseo's Nick Andrews (39th, 24:21.8). Alex Phillip of John Carroll won the national title in 23:27.6.
Cory was in 132nd place at 1,000 meters in 3:09.3, but quickly moved up to 34th place at the 3,000-meter mark (9:05.1). He continued to improve over the race's next 2,000 meters, pushing himself to 29th at the 4K mark (12:10.7) and 27th after 5,000 meters (15:22.4). He started to slip a little toward the end, falling back to 35th place with 1,600 meters remaining (19:28.5) before holding on for 40th place.
Cory is the 13th Cortland men's runner to earn cross country All-America honors and the first since Nick Marcantonio earned three consecutive honors from 2012-14.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
I'm at a loss for words, which is rarely the case. Ryan's story should be pretty inspiring to anybody who is a fan of sport. Coming in as a freshman two years ago, Ryan was an injury replacement for the SUNYAC championships roster.
Ryan trained on his own for nearly a year and a half, through the end of the spring semester in 2020, our one-day long fall season last fall, and then while working full-time and attending school remotely last spring. His hard work and dedication transformed him into a national-caliber runner!
Ryan executed his race strategy quite well today, moving up exactly how we had hoped, all the way into the top 30. This was the first race all season where he had a number of strong challengers in the second half of the race and he slipped back a bit, but certainly finished tough to hang on for All-American honors! To be able to perform that well in your first NCAA Championships is a pretty tremendous accomplishment, and one of which we are quite proud!
It's hard to believe that cross country is over! It's also pretty sad, as this has been a very enjoyable year for me personally to coach these teams. Thankfully, track season is well under way: our first meet is only two weeks away!
