M20-24: Abdilmana edges Kitiyo in a sub-45 duel at the front

• Ali Abdilmana, 22, wins in 44:36 (4:47/mi), climbing from 20th among men at 5K to 9th by the finish — the strongest closing surge at the front.
• Dennis Kitiyo, 24, finishes just four seconds back in 44:40, posting the 9th-fastest men's split on the 5K→10K segment to put himself in striking distance.
• Scott Loforte, 3rd in 47:29, ran the 17th-fastest men's split on the 5K→10K leg — a strong mid-race move that carried him from 58th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 19th by the finish.
• A tight cluster at 8th–9th: Steven Fiumefreddo and Ben Dertinger both crossed in 50:37, though the timing had them in separate places.

In 88% humidity on a July morning in Utica, the M20-24 race at the front was a genuine two-man affair. Ali Abdilmana of Chapel Hill, NC, and Dennis Kitiyo of Iten were running shoulder-to-shoulder through the middle miles, both sitting inside the top 25 among men at the 10K mark. It was the final 5K that separated them — Abdilmana posted the 6th-fastest men's closing split in the field, steadily reeling in runners ahead of him to reach 9th among men at the line. Kitiyo, who had been the stronger of the two through the 5K→10K segment (9th-fastest men's split on that leg), couldn't quite match the finishing kick, arriving four seconds later in 44:40.

Behind that lead pair, a significant gap opened before the rest of the field arrived. Scott Loforte, 24, of Canandaigua, NY, was the standout mover in the chasing pack — starting the race outside the top 50 among men, he used the 17th-fastest men's split on the 5K→10K segment to surge into contention and ultimately claimed 3rd in 47:29. Seth Slavin of Bethlehem, PA, ran a nearly identical race to finish 4th in 47:40, just 11 seconds behind Loforte after a similarly aggressive mid-race move from 53rd among men at 5K. Vinny Castronuovo rounded out the top five in 48:43, with a strong closing leg that brought him home 27th among men.

The depth of the M20-24 field across 436 finishers was on full display from 6th place onward, where Jonathan Zavala (50:30), Jack Gibson (50:36), and the tightly bunched trio of Fiumefreddo, Dertinger, and Verstandig all finished within 25 seconds of each other — a competitive mid-pack scrum that underscored just how loaded this age group was on race day.