Chad Dunham has been named the new men's and women's cross country head coach at SUNY Cortland in an announcement from Director of Athletics Mike Urtz.
 
Dunham previously has served as an assistant coach for the Red Dragons for four seasons from 2022-26. Steve Patrick, who was the head coach for both the cross country and track and field programs, will now serve as Cortland's Director of Cross Country and Track & Field, and he will remain as the Red Dragons' track and field head coach. Dunham will continue in his role as an assistant coach with the track and field teams.
 
"We are pleased to bring on Chad to lead our cross country programs in this newly created position," said Urtz. "We feel his knowledge and experience, with a true focus on our distance running throughout the year, will certainly enhance our student-athletes' experience here at Cortland."
 
Dunham worked with the mid-distance and distance athletes throughout the track & field seasons at Cortland. Besides his coaching responsibilities for both sports he also served as the primary recruiter for those student-athletes along with being the meet director of home invitationals and championships hosted at Cortland along with providing academic monitoring and assistance for all of the cross country/track and field student-athletes.

"I'm honored to be named the next head coach of cross country at Cortland," said Dunham. "I owe a huge thank you to Mike Urtz, President Bitterbaum, the greater SUNY Cortland Athletics staff, and Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Steve Patrick.
 
"Being an alum and seeing the students who come through Cortland, I'm a major believer in the opportunities our University provides. Being allowed to have a role in Athletics as a part of their Cortland experience is one of the best fortunes of my life, and I look forward to the year ahead!"

During his time as an assistant with the Red Dragons, Dunham has recruited and helped coach runners that have earned entry in Cortland's All-Time Top Five Women's Performances in the mile, 3000-meter steeplechase, and distance medley relay along with helping coach Rich Samuels '22 M '23 to claim the school record in men's outdoor track and field 800-meter race in the Spring of 2023.

Entering the 2026-27 school year, Dunham has helped to develop 109 all-conference performances (22 in cross country and 87 in the track and field middle-distance/distance events), and 22 all-region performances (seven in cross country and fifteen during track and field), as well as four individual NCAA qualifying performances (Hunter Brignall '24 in cross country and Melissa Innocent '26 twice during cross country and once during the indoor track and field season). Five Red Dragon harriers have been inducted into the SUNYAC Cross Country Hall of Fame as well: Brignall, Innocent, Brandon Mulholland '25, Adam Schreiber '24 M'25, and Deirdre Sullivan '25; Innocent twice claimed the individual conference cross-country title.

In both 2024-25 and 2025-26, Dunham was part of the Cortland staffs that each earned six SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors. The program won SUNYAC titles in men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track and field, and men's and women's outdoor track and field in each of those school years.

A Central Square native, Dunham graduated summa cum laude from Cortland in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in history and earned a master's degree in educational leadership from St. Lawrence University in 2022. He served as an assistant coach at St. Lawrence for two years, helping develop national qualifiers in cross country, the 800 meters, and the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
 
Dunham ran for Cortland starting in the spring of 2019 through his graduation in May of 2020. Prior to Cortland, he competed at SUNY Oneonta, where he was part of the first men's cross country team in school history to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 2016. A native of West Monroe, he graduated from Paul V. Moore High School in 2015. He competed in cross country and track and field and he was a National Honor Society student.