Women's Race: Gebreselama Breaks the Record in Utica

• Tsigie Gebreselama wins in 47:29 — four seconds under the previous course record of 47:33 set by Jesca Chelangat in 2023.
• Top three sweep the fastest women's middle splits: Gebreselama, Wudu, and Cherono ran the 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-fastest women's splits on the 5K→10K segment, in exactly that finishing order.
• Priscah Cherono, age 46, takes the podium: 3rd place in 48:14 — a remarkable result against a field of 4,050 women.
• Everlyn Kemboi makes the biggest move late: starting 101st among women at 5K, she climbed all the way to 4th by the finish, posting the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 10K→finish segment.

The headline number is 47:29. Tsigie Gebreselama, 25, from Boulder, Colorado, crossed the line four seconds faster than Jesca Chelangat's 2023 course record — running 9.3 miles at a 5:06-per-mile clip on a humid July morning in Utica. It was not a wire-to-wire performance: at the 5K mark she sat 85th among women, and at 10K she had surged to 2nd. Then she made her decisive move, posting the fastest women's split of the entire 5K→10K segment to vault into the lead, and she never relinquished it.

Right behind her, 21-year-old Melknat Wudu of Boston ran the second-fastest women's 5K→10K split and finished 2nd in 47:44 — just 15 seconds off the new course record. Third place went to Priscah Cherono of Colorado Springs, who at 46 years old ran 48:14 at a 5:10-per-mile pace and also claimed the 3rd-fastest middle split among women. The top three were separated by only 45 seconds, and all three ran the decisive middle segment faster than anyone else in the women's field.

The race's most dramatic positional climb belonged to Everlyn Kemboi. The 30-year-old from Longmont, Colorado was 101st among women through 5K, 7th at 10K, and 4th at the finish in 48:28 — powered by the 3rd-fastest women's split on the closing 10K-to-finish leg. Selah Busienei rounded out the top five in 48:31, just three seconds back, while Netsanet Desta (48:46) and Alem Nigus Tsadik (48:48) completed a tightly packed top seven. Stephanie Bruce, 42, was a notable presence in 9th at 50:40, and Jackie Gaughan (10th, 51:02) closed out the top ten in a women's field that stretched to 4,050 finishers.