RUNNERS WITH LOCAL TIES BRING HOME GUTHRIE WINEGLASS MARATHON TITLES (24 PHOTOS) (2025-10-05)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
CORNING — A pair of runners with some ties to the area each picks up their second career marathon wins on Sunday as they won the 2025 Guthrie Wineglass Marathon.

On the men’s side Ithaca College graduate Dennis Ryan won the race in two hours, 25 minutes, 23 seconds. On the women’s side Sadie James, who lives in Sayre, Pa., won the women’s race in two hours, 48 minutes and 58 seconds.

The course is known to be flat and fast, and that’s one of the things that Ryan said drew him to Corning this weekend.

While, the course was exactly what Ryan imagined, it was a bright, sunny day with some wind which caused some challenges.

“The only thing about today, it was very sunny, so that was in our eyes the entire way,” Ryan said. “There was also a headwind. Probably a 10 mile an hour headwind. I was running alone for most of it, so I had no one to block it.

“But, other than that, a beautiful day. Can’t really complain.”

Ryan is originally from Rhode Island, but now lives in New York City. He was one of the 2,700 runners in the marathon, while 3,000 runners took part in the half marathon.

Ryan had heard about the Wineglass Marathon since his days at Ithaca College, when the captain on his team, Dan Craighead, won the marathon in 2013.

He signed up for the 2020 event, but that was canceled due to Covid, so he made his Wineglass debut on Sunday.

In college Ryan was a multiple-time All-Empire 8 first-team runner in cross country, and he was also a standout in track and field. He was a 1,000-meter class champion in high school at Coventry High School in Rhode Island.

It was the eighth marathon of Ryan’s running career. His other win came at the Hyannis Marathon in Massachusetts.

As the race was going on, Ryan started to hurt with a little under 10 miles to go. He had been told by the crowd no other runners were in sight of hi. But, then he was told that there was a runner not too far behind.

He knew because he was hurting that someone would come up behind hi.

“In the final mile the spectators were telling me he was 150 meters behind me, and I was starting to slow down,” Ryan said. “I have a bit of a kick. I used to be an 800-meter runner in college, so I had to summon some of that speed in the final 300 meters.”

Jeremy Arthur, also from New York City, finished second in 2:25.48 and Marty Butler, who won the Master’s division, was third in 2:28.25.

Ryan feels like if the race was much longer he might have been caught.

“We were talking afterward and (Arthur) was telling me if he had another mile, he would have got me, and I believe him,” Ryan said.

For James the hope was to podium, but as the race went on that seemed to be a long shot in her mind.

The runner, who is from Maine and went to Bates College in Maine, was cramping partway through the race and threw out any goals on time for the race.

“At mile 10, I really started cramping up and I let go of any time goal and it really just became to finish,” James said. “Then, somebody told me I was the fourth female, then someone passed me, so I figured I was fifth.”

One of the runners that passed James was a pacer, so she thought she was around fourth, but was surprised to hear from spectators that she and the woman she was running with were 1-2 at the time.

“We kind of looked at each other like, ‘What?’ Because we were both really, really hurting,” James said. “So, I think that was a good energy boost of like, ‘Okay, everybody is struggling right now, it’s not just me.”

James said that she had salt tablets, which helped a lot, and then she forced herself to eat and drink some.

While the headwind was tough, James had a group of other runners she was able to run with at the beginning, and at ties she was also able to duck in behind men’s runners.

Haley Maddox of Texas was second in 2:50.30 and Melissa Lodge of Rhode Island was third in 2:51.45.

This was the seventh marathon for James, whose other marathon win came at the Sugarloaf Marathon in Maine.

“I’m really in awe right now,” James said. “I said to my family, it would be really awesome to podium and I kind of thought that went down the drain after mile 10.

“I also wanted to PR, which I didn’t do today, so I think it just goes to show that anything can happen over 26.2 miles and you can not hit one goal, but still hit another goal.”

James was a runner and was also a cross-country skier in college and after her college sports career ended she got into marathons. She’s lived in Sayre for the past few years as her husband is in his residency there.

James had a strong contingent of supporters, including her training parter Meg Bouton. Bouton, who lives in Corning was 58th overall in the half-marathon, and in 2022 she was a third-place finisher herself in the full marathon.

“I moved her knowing nobody,” James said. “That girl right there, she’s been my saving grace living here. She’s my training partner and one of my dearest friends.”

In the half marathon Will Loevner, of Pittsburgh, broke the course record with a time of 1:05.04 in the Wegmans Wineglass Half Marathon. The old record was set last year by Alexander Burks and was 1:05.11.

Casey Milroy won the women’s half marathon in 1:17.21. Corning graduate Douglas Cornfield was the men’s winner in the Williams Toyota Wineglass 5K on Saturday in 16 minutes, 16 seconds and the women’s winner was Erin McConnell of West Chester, Pa. In 21:19.
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RESULTS FROM THE RACE

PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES

PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE MARATHON:


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