Boilermaker 15K F25-29: Gebreselama Breaks the Women's Course Record

• Tsigie Gebreselama, 47:29 — not only won the F25-29 field of 636 but broke the women's course record of 47:33 set by Jesca Chelangat in 2023, by four seconds.
• Netsanet Desta (48:46) and Alem Nigus Tsadik (48:48) finished 2nd and 3rd, separated by just two seconds after 15 kilometers.
• Desta's closing surge: she posted the 4th-fastest women's split from 10K to the finish, reeling in Tsadik — who had been ahead at 10K — to claim 2nd by that two-second margin.
• Jackie Gaughan (4th, 51:02) returns to Utica having run 50:35 here in 2024, where she finished 10th among women — she held that same 10th spot among women through every checkpoint this year before her F25-29 divisional place landed her 4th in the group.

The headline story is Tsigie Gebreselama. The 25-year-old from Boulder ran 47:29 at 5:06/mi — four seconds under Chelangat's 2023 women's course record — and she earned it the hard way. She entered the first 5K checkpoint sitting 2nd among women, then seized the lead through the middle segment with the fastest women's split from 5K to 10K, and never looked back. That middle-race surge was the decisive moment, and the record fell with it.

Behind her, Netsanet Desta and Alem Nigus Tsadik staged a compelling duel for the podium. Tsadik held the edge at 10K, running the 5th-fastest women's split through that segment while Desta sat 7th among women at the halfway mark. But Desta turned in the 4th-fastest women's closing split from 10K to the finish, running Tsadik down and crossing in 48:46 to Tsadik's 48:48. Two seconds after 9.3 miles — that's a race within a race.

Jackie Gaughan was the picture of consistency, holding 10th among women from the 5K mark through to the finish tape in 51:02. She also owns real history here: she ran 50:35 at this same race in 2024, also finishing 10th among women. Kerry Flower (5th, 53:26) and Annabel Stafford (6th, 53:33) rounded out a tight battle just behind Gaughan, separated by seven seconds. The depth of the F25-29 field — 636 finishers strong on a humid Utica morning — made every second count from front to back.