Boilermaker 5K F25-29: Juliet Hull Runs Away With It

• Juliet Hull wins in 19:05 (6:09/mi) — more than three minutes clear of the rest of the 243-woman field.
• Shavon Kline takes 2nd in 22:23 (7:12/mi), finishing a commanding runner-up in a field where the top-two gap was the race's defining story.
• Geralyn Swald, Alaina Clifford, and Rachel Tower round out the top five with times of 23:58, 24:41, and 24:53 respectively — a tight 55-second window for three spots.
• Emily Burstein (6th, 24:55) edged Elizabeth O'Connor (7th, 25:32) by just two seconds for the final sub-25-minute finish in the group.

In a field of 243 runners on a sticky July morning — 75°F and 90% humidity in Utica — Juliet Hull of Belmont, NC, simply ran a different race than everyone else. Her 19:05 at 6:09/mi wasn't just a win; it was a statement. The gap between Hull and 2nd-place Shavon Kline of New Hartford, NY (22:23, 7:12/mi) stretched to 3 minutes and 18 seconds — a margin that speaks for itself in a 5K.

Kline's own runner-up performance was no small feat, coming in more than a minute and a half ahead of 3rd-place Geralyn Swald of Schenectady, NY, who crossed in 23:58 at 7:43/mi. From there, the racing got genuinely interesting: Alaina Clifford (Syracuse, NY) finished 4th in 24:41, Rachel Tower (Miami, FL) was 5th in 24:53, and Emily Burstein (West Simsbury, CT) slipped into 6th in 24:55 — those three places decided over just 14 seconds.

Just outside the top five, Elizabeth O'Connor of Utica, NY ran on home turf to claim 7th in 25:32, with Elizabeth Thoma (Franklin Lakes, NJ) close behind in 8th at 25:35. Savannah Rogers (9th, 26:04) and Elizabeth Shephard (10th, 26:20) kept the back of the top ten competitive, while Katie Armstrong (13th, 27:33) and Laura Ondrick (14th, 28:00), making the trip from Greenfield Park, QC, added some geographic range to an already wide-ranging field. Hull, though, was never in doubt — on a humid Sunday morning, she was in a category entirely her own.