W1-19: Schweibinz Runs Down the Field to Win NYC Half

• Alivia Schweibinz won the W1-19 age group in 1:31:17 (6:58/mi), the fastest finish in the group by nearly three minutes.
• The podium gap was unusual: 3rd-place Blair Walsh (1:34:06) actually finished 2:49 ahead of 2nd-place Kajal Parmar (1:53:30) on the clock — the places reflect the official order.
• Schweibinz posted the 61st-fastest women's split on the 15K→20K segment in the entire women's field, her strongest stretch of the race.
• 136 runners finished in the W1-19 age group, with finishing times ranging from 1:31:17 to well past 2:40.

Alivia Schweibinz, 19, from Manalapan, NJ, put together the defining performance of the W1-19 age group on a crisp 40°F morning in New York. Running at 6:58 per mile, she crossed in 1:31:17 — nearly three minutes clear of the next finisher. What makes her race particularly compelling is how she got there: her gender place among all women moved from 391st at the first checkpoint all the way to 157th by 20K, a relentless climb through the field. The 15K-to-20K stretch was her sharpest, where she posted the 61st-fastest women's split on that segment across the entire women's field.

Third place tells an interesting story. Blair Walsh, 18, from New York City, ran 1:34:06 — a 7:11/mi effort that was actually the second-fastest finishing time in the group. Her trajectory, however, ran opposite to Schweibinz's: Walsh's gender standing slipped from 279th at the first checkpoint to 433rd by 20K before recovering slightly at the finish, suggesting she went out hard and paid for it in the middle miles. Kajal Parmar, 18, from Raleigh, ran a solid early race but faded sharply in the closing stretch — her gender place dropped from 282nd at 20K all the way to 1,395th at the finish, a dramatic late fade that cost her second on the clock while the official order holds her at 2nd.

Further back, the 4th-through-8th places were tightly bunched in finishing time. Maggie Greiner (1:42:17) and Lily Magliacano (1:42:35) were separated by just 18 seconds for 4th and 8th respectively, with Molly Logan (1:43:43), Sarah Stark (1:44:03), and Clementine Huchet (1:44:33) all clustered within two and a half minutes of them — a genuine mid-pack battle across five athletes. On a cold, clear day from Prospect Park to Central Park, the W1-19 age group delivered a wide range of performances, with Schweibinz's wire-to-wire surge standing comfortably above the rest.