M35-39: Castelblanco Surges to the Title in Utica's Heat

• Jorge Castelblanco, 47:28 (5:06/mi) — wins M35-39 in a time that would have matched the women's course record set just a year prior.
• Jared Burdick and Steve Soprano finished 2nd (49:24) and 3rd (49:30) — six seconds separating them after 9.3 miles of racing.
• Andrew Dionne rounded out the top four at 49:38, with all three chasers running the 5K→10K segment among the 29th–36th fastest men's splits on that stretch.
• 614 finishers made M35-39 one of the deepest fields on the course, with 20th place (AJ Hameline, 56:30) coming in nearly nine minutes back of the winner.

Jorge Castelblanco, 36, from Oakland Gardens, NY, put on a masterclass in negative-split racing on a humid July morning in Utica — 88% humidity with barely a breath of wind to offer relief. He entered the 10K checkpoint sitting 19th among men, then unleashed the 20th-fastest men's split of the entire field on the 10K-to-finish stretch, climbing all the way to 18th among men by the tape. His 47:28 at 5:06 per mile is a genuinely elite mark — a time that would have won this race outright in 2021.

Behind him, the battle for the podium was decided by fractions. Jared Burdick (37, Fayetteville, NY) crossed in 49:24 for second, with Steve Soprano (36, Queensbury, NY) just six seconds back in 49:30 for third — both men running the middle segment (5K→10K) among the fastest in the field, Burdick posting the 29th-fastest split on that stretch and Soprano the 33rd. Andrew Dionne (35, also of Fayetteville) was right there in fourth at 49:38, his 32nd-fastest 5K→10K split keeping him firmly in contention through the middle miles before Burdick and Soprano held him off.

Chris Raulli (36, Davidson, NC) finished fifth in 50:43, with Justin Kowalski (38, South Bend, IN) sixth at 51:37 and Kyle Price (36, Milltown, NJ) seventh at 52:26 — a spread of just under two minutes across places five through seven. The field then stretched out through a strong mid-pack, from Jonathan Lindenauer's 53:17 in eighth down through a tight cluster around the 53:44–53:53 range where Ryan Carney (9th), John Pozo (10th), Aaron Nobles (11th), and Thomas O'Grady (12th) were separated by a total of just one second.