Sportsmanship is defined in the dictionary as “conduct (as fairness, respect for one's opponent, and graciousness in winning or losing) becoming to one participating in a sport.”

For West Virginia Wesleyan College cross country runner Paul Moore, he went above and beyond that definition in an act of fairness and graciousness during the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) Cross Country Championships that were held in Buckhannon last November.

Paul was running in one of his final races as a senior in the conference meet and looking to improve on his fourth-place finish from a year ago. With the race heading into the home stretch, Moore found himself in a battle for 10th place along with Wheeling Jesuit’s Ryan Donahue. Finishing in the top 10 at the conference meet is important, because those first 10 runners receive honors on the All-Conference Team.

With the two runners stride-for-stride, they both sprinted for the finish line. Donahue leaned forward just a one-hundredth of a second before Moore did to finish 10th.

Believing that he had finished 10th, Donahue listened for his name to be called during the awards ceremony after the race. But when race officials announced who the 10th-place runner was, it wasn’t Donahue’s name that was called. It was Paul Moore! At first Donahue thought that maybe he finished ninth, but as the names of the top 10 were being announced, Donahue realized that his name wasn’t going to be called despite leaning ahead of Moore at the end of the race.

Moore, who had accepted a plaque for finishing 10th, realized that an error had been made and quickly had race officials notified through his coach Jesse Skiles. The problem of who finished 10th arose with how the conference championships were being timed. Runners had to put a computer chip on only one of their shoes for timing purposes. Donahue had crossed the finish line first, but somehow, the chip on Moore’s shoe was detected first by the computer that was recording the runner’s times.

Realizing the mistake, Moore went over to the Wheeling Jesuit team bus, and in front of the Wheeling Jesuit men and women’s teams, he apologized to Ryan for the misunderstanding and conceded 10th place to Ryan and handed him the plaque.

Moore’s show of sportsmanship, as noble as it was, would have probably never have come to light if not for West Liberty runner A. J. Monseau. Monseau also participated in the conference championship and witnessed everything that had transpired.

He quickly wrote a letter to Jim Warner, the sports editor of the Record Delta newspaper in Buckhannon describing the events of that day. In the letter, Monseau said that Moore had “revived my faith in sports and he has shown everybody another great example of sportsmanship.”

Wesleyan athletic director George Klebez submitted Moore’s recommendation along with Monseau’s letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) offices. Klebez wrote: “What I will share with you involves three athletes from three different schools. It reflects on all three, and their understanding of what is sportsmanship.”

And on June 16 in Orlando, Florida, Moore was the recipient of the NCAA’s “Citizenship Through Sports Alliance Sportsmanship Award,” which is sponsored by the National Athletic Directors Association.

The Awards Ceremony took place at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando in conjunction with the 2003 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Convention. It paid tribute to special athletes with the highest ethical standards in sport, whose lives and careers have reflected an enduring commitment to citizenship, sportsmanship and community service.

“He did the right thing,” commented Skiles. “Paul knew that Ryan had defeated him and he knew that Ryan was terribly upset after the awards ceremony had concluded and he didn’t hear his name. Paul was surprised as anyone when he heard his name mentioned for 10th place. I asked Paul what he wanted to do, and he said he was going to correct the mistake and started to walk over the to the Wheeling Jesuit bus. It was a tremendous act by a tremendous athlete and person.”

Moore, an international student from Toronto, Canada, was captain of Skiles’ 2002 cross country team. He was also the 2001 WVIAC “Track Athlete of the Year.”

Moore is a 2003 graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan.