Women's Race: Nawowuna Storms Home in a Breathless Finish

• Grace Loibach Nawowuna wins in 49:18 (5:17/mi), climbing from 33rd among women at 5K to 4th by 10K and first at the tape — the most dramatic charge of the day.
• Emmaculate Anya Achol finishes 2nd in 49:18, matching Nawowuna's clock but edged at the line; Achol posted the fastest women's split from 10K to the finish, reeling in time she couldn't quite convert.
• Cynthia Jerotic Limo (3rd, 49:20) and defending champion Jesca Chelangat (4th, 49:37) complete a podium separated by just 19 seconds across four finishers.
• Chelangat, the 2023 course-record holder (47:33), led the women's field at 10K before fading over the final 5K — the race's most telling momentum shift.

Ninety-three degrees of humidity hung over Utica on Sunday morning, and the women's race played out exactly as the conditions would predict: a fast early leader, a dramatic late surge, and a finish so tight the clock couldn't separate first from second. Jesca Chelangat, who set the course record here in 2023, went out with purpose — 18th among women at 5K, then first by 10K, posting the second-fastest women's split on that middle segment. But the final leg belonged to someone else entirely.

Grace Loibach Nawowuna, 20, of West Chester, PA, ran the most aggressive race in the field. She was 33rd among women through 5K, climbed to 4th by 10K on the fastest women's split of that segment, then closed with enough force to overtake Chelangat and win in 49:18 at 5:17 per mile. Her training partner Emmaculate Anya Achol, also of West Chester, ran an almost mirror-image race — 28th at 5K, 8th at 10K, 2nd at the finish — posting the fastest women's closing split of anyone in the field. Same finish time, same pace, but Nawowuna held the line by the slimmest of margins. Two athletes from the same town, chasing each other home.

Limo ran a controlled, measured race to claim 3rd in 49:20 with the third-fastest middle split, while Mestawut Fikir (5th, 49:38) and Kasanesh Ayenew (6th, 50:09) rounded out a deep Ethiopian presence at the front. Further back, Annamaria Kostarellis (8th, 50:18) and Jackie Gaughan (10th, 50:35) led a strong American contingent, while 40-year-old Aynalem Woldemchael (15th, 55:57) was the standout among the veteran finishers in a women's field of 3,502.