M30-39 Ascent: Mccandless Tops a Deep Colorado Field

• Tyler Mccandless won M30-39 in 24:35 (11:18/mi), holding 4th among men throughout and posting the 4th-fastest men's split on the Snow King→Finish segment.
• David Sinclair (24:49) and Joseph Demoor (24:52) separated by just 3 seconds for 2nd and 3rd — a tight battle that wasn't resolved until the finish line.
• Noah Williams was the day's biggest mover in the top ten, climbing from 15th to 11th among men on the Snow King→Finish leg with the 8th-fastest men's split on that segment.
• Sean van Horn and Daniel Metzger finished 11th and 12th separated by just 0.26 seconds — the closest margin anywhere in the M30-39 results.

Tyler Mccandless made it look controlled. The Fort Collins runner locked into 4th among men from the gun and never wavered, crossing in 24:35 at an 11:18/mi clip up a course that climbs through Palisades Tahoe's thin air — topping out near 7,964 feet, where every breath counts a little more, especially for anyone not already living at altitude. His 4th-fastest men's split on the Snow King→Finish stretch confirmed that he didn't just survive the closing climb; he pushed through it.

Behind him, David Sinclair and Joseph Demoor ran the kind of race that makes a podium ceremony interesting. Sinclair (24:49) finished 2nd and Demoor (24:52) 3rd — 14 seconds covered the pair, and Demoor actually posted the 6th-fastest men's split on Snow King→Finish to Sinclair's 7th, meaning Demoor was closing but simply ran out of course. Ryan Becker rounded out the top four in 25:13, while Noah Williams made the most compelling move of the race, surging from 15th to 11th among men on that final segment with the 8th-fastest men's split there.

The race had depth well beyond the podium. Andy Wacker (6th, 26:04) and Joshua Ernst (7th, 26:41) kept the gap to the top honest, and the field of 95 finishers stretched all the way through a genuine photo-finish moment at the back of the top twelve: Sean van Horn edged Daniel Metzger by a quarter of a second — both clocking 28:56 on the display clock, but the timing strip told the real story.