Boilermaker 15K Women: Gebreselama Dips Under the Course Record to Claim Utica

• Tsigie Gebreselama wins in 47:29, breaking the women's course record of 47:33 set by Jesca Chelangat in 2023 — by four seconds.
• Top three finish within 45 seconds: Melknat Wudu 2nd in 47:44, Priscah Cherono 3rd in 48:14 — Cherono remarkable at age 46.
• Everlyn Kemboi climbs from 6th at the 10K mark to 4th at the finish (48:28), posting the 3rd-fastest women's split on the final stretch.
• Jackie Gaughan returns to the same 10th-place finish she held in 2024, this time in 51:02 — 27 seconds slower than her 50:35 from two years prior.

The headline story in Utica's women's race is a record. Tsigie Gebreselama, 25, of Boulder, crossed in 47:29 — four seconds faster than Chelangat's 2023 mark and the fastest women's finish this race has seen in the editions we have. She didn't lead from the gun, though. Through the first 5K, Melknat Wudu held the top women's spot, with Gebreselama sitting second. It was the 5K-to-10K segment where the race turned: Gebreselama posted the fastest women's split on that stretch, moving to the front and never relinquishing it. Wudu answered with the second-fastest split on the same leg, making it a genuine pursuit — but couldn't close the gap, finishing 15 seconds back in 47:44.

Priscah Cherono, 46, of Colorado Springs, was her own story entirely. Locked into 3rd place from the opening 5K through the finish, she ran a composed, controlled 48:14 — posting the 3rd-fastest women's middle split and never wavering. In a field of 4,050 women, running 5:10 per mile at 46 is a performance that demands its own sentence.

Behind the podium, Everlyn Kemboi made the most dramatic move of the race's second half. Sitting 6th at both the 5K and 10K marks, she uncorked the 3rd-fastest women's final split to surge past two competitors and finish 4th in 48:28. Selah Busienei (5th, 48:31) had held 4th through 10K but faded just enough over the final stretch for Kemboi to slip by — three seconds the difference at the line. Netsanet Desta (6th, 48:46) and Alem Nigus Tsadik (7th, 48:48) rounded out a remarkably tight lead group, with seven women finishing under 49 minutes.

Further back, Stephanie Bruce (9th, 50:40) and Jackie Gaughan (10th, 51:02) gave the field some familiar names. Gaughan, who finished 10th here in 2024 in 50:35, landed in the same spot two years running — a testament to consistency, even if this edition cost her 27 additional seconds on a humid Utica morning.