Boilermaker 15K F50-54: Bartell Holds Off Donnelly in a Hard-Fought Utica Finish

• Amy Bartell (Mendon, NY) wins the F50-54 race in 1:13:38 (7:54/mi), edging Pamela Donnelly by 7 seconds.
• Jody Musolino (North Tonawanda, NY) ran the most dramatic comeback of the top five — entering the women's field 217th through 5K before climbing to 183rd by the finish, good for 4th in 1:14:22.
• The top four finishers were separated by just 44 seconds across a 217-woman field on a muggy 75°F morning with 90% humidity.
• Suzanne Garrett of Kingston, ON rounded out the top five in 1:15:33, with a 1:01 gap back to 4th — the largest single step in the podium group.

Amy Bartell crossed in 1:13:38 at a 7:54/mi clip to claim the F50-54 title, but it was anything but a wire-to-wire cruise. Her gender standing actually dipped from 171st to 178th through 10K before she surged home with the 148th-fastest women's split on the back half — a decisive closing move that sealed the win on a heavy, humid Utica morning.

Right behind her, Pamela Donnelly of Vernon, NY ran a different kind of race. She was the stronger woman through the middle stretch — posting the 166th-fastest women's split from 5K to 10K — and moved up in the women's field through that segment. But Bartell's closing surge was the difference, and Donnelly finished 7 seconds back in 1:13:45 (7:55/mi). Third went to Michele Diliberto of Marcy, NY in 1:14:15 (7:58/mi), though her 5K-to-10K split ranked 188th among women — a slight fade in the middle that Donnelly actually ran past her during.

Musolino's back-half charge was the most eye-catching move in the group. She was 217th in the women's field through 5K — deep in the pack — but posted the 173rd-fastest women's split from 10K to the finish to claw her way to 4th in 1:14:22. From 6th through 10K, Carolyn Jeziorski of Elmira ran home in 1:17:56 (8:22/mi), with Rebecca Brodsky, Meenu Kaur, Valerie Mancabelli, and Courtney Burke filling out the top ten between 1:19:05 and 1:20:20 — all navigating the same thick air that made every minute earned on this course a genuine one.