Women's Race: Gebreselama edges Wudu in a sub-course-record showdown

• Tsigie Gebreselama wins in 47:29 — four seconds under the previous course record of 47:33 set by Jesca Chelangat in 2023, at a 5:06/mi pace across a women's field of 4,050.
• Melknat Wudu, 2nd in 47:44, led through the first 5K before Gebreselama surged past on the middle segment with the fastest women's split between 5K and 10K — Wudu answered with the second-fastest split on that same stretch, but the gap was already set.
• Priscah Cherono, 3rd in 48:14, is 46 years old and ran the third-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K segment — a remarkable performance at that age in any company.
• Everlyn Kemboi's late charge: sitting 6th at both the 5K and 10K marks, she closed with the third-fastest women's split from 10K to the finish to move into 4th at 48:28.

Gebreselama and Wudu turned this into a two-woman race from the gun. Wudu held the lead through the first 5K, but Gebreselama flipped the script on the middle stretch, posting the fastest women's split from 5K to 10K and opening enough daylight to hold on to the finish. The 15-second margin — 47:29 to 47:44 — doesn't fully capture how decisive the middle segment was; Wudu ran the second-fastest split there and still couldn't close it. Gebreselama's winning time of 47:29 breaks the course record by four seconds, a genuine headline on a morning of 64°F and 82% humidity.

Cherono's 48:14 in third is the performance that deserves a second look. At 46, she matched the top three's middle-segment pace closely enough to claim the third-fastest 5K–10K split in the women's field, finishing a full 14 seconds clear of fourth. Behind her, Selah Busienei (5th, 48:31) and Netsanet Desta (6th, 48:46) completed a tight top-six separated by just over a minute, while Kemboi's surge from 6th to 4th in the final 5K added a compelling late-race subplot.

Further back, Stephanie Bruce (9th, 50:40) and Jackie Gaughan (10th, 51:02) rounded out the top ten. Gaughan's 51:02 is worth noting: she finished 10th here in 2024 as well, in 50:35 — she's right back in the same spot, 27 seconds slower on the clock this time around. Annie Heffernan claimed 11th in 51:43 ahead of a field of 4,050 women that stretched all the way through Utica.