Boilermaker 5K M25-29: Adam Dominates on His Home Turf

• Mohamad Adam wins in 19:04 (6:08/mi), claiming the M25-29 title in front of his Utica home crowd.
• 28 seconds separate the top two — Adam over Moutawakil Abou Ismail (19:32) — with Howard Miller Jr. another 21 seconds back in third (19:53).
• The top four finishers all broke 20:30, then a nearly one-minute gap opened to 5th place.
• 145 men finished in the M25-29 field, with the top 20 spanning just over six and a half minutes of racing.

Mohamad Adam, a 29-year-old running on familiar Utica streets, made the M25-29 race his own from the front, posting a 6:08/mi average to finish in 19:04. That's a convincing margin — 28 seconds ahead of fellow Utica resident Moutawakil Abou Ismail, who crossed in 19:32 at 6:17/mi. Adam's win had the feel of a local knowing exactly what he was doing in those conditions: 64°F and humid enough (87%) to make every sub-6:10 mile count.

Howard Miller Jr. of Frankfort rounded out the podium in 19:53 (6:24/mi), holding off Brendan Wagler of Rochester, who finished fourth in 20:18 at 6:32/mi. Those four formed a clear lead pack — the fastest quartet in the field — separated by just 1:14 across the board. After Wagler, the field opened up sharply: Nick Kruger came home fifth in 21:17 (6:51/mi), nearly a full minute behind fourth, signaling that the front four had genuinely raced away from the rest.

From there, Tim Ososkalo finished sixth in 21:25, and the battle shifted to the mid-field, where Matthew Moran (22:45, 7th) and Brian Mahoney (22:57, 8th) ran within 12 seconds of each other. Terrance Nichols (23:30, 9th) and Zachary Webster (23:54, 10th) kept the competition honest further back, with the top 20 — stretching out to Connor Wilson's 25:44 in 20th — showing the genuine depth of a 145-man M25-29 field on a humid July morning in Utica.