Chad Dunham, a 2020 Cortland alumnus, was named head coach of cross country/assistant track and field coach prior to the 2026-2027 academic year. Dunham had originally returned to Cortland in the fall of 2022 as an assistant coach for cross country/track and field (working with the mid-distance and distance athletes throughout the track & field seasons). 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.
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 the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Dunham was part of the Cortland staff that swept SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors, helping to guide the team to 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.
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Dunham graduated summa cum laude from Cortland 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.
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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.
