Broken Arrow Skyrace 3.5K Ascent — M50-59: Streit Dominates at the Top

• Tav Streit (50, Truckee) wins in 35:00 — nearly 2:42 clear of 2nd place, the largest margin between any two consecutive finishers on the podium.
• Kevin Sawchuk (59) earns 3rd at 39:07, the oldest man on the podium and proof that the gap between 50 and 59 is no barrier on this climb.
• Tight mid-pack battle: Jay King (39:24) edged Jed Deorsay (39:35) and Greg Larkin (39:39) — just 15 seconds covering 5th through 7th.
• 42 men finished the high-altitude ascent from 6,298 to 7,964 feet, running at paces ranging from Streit's 16:06/mi to a field that stretched well past 20:00/mi.

Tav Streit made this look like a different race. The 50-year-old Truckee local crossed in 35:00 — a pace of 16:06 per mile up a mountain course that tops out near 8,000 feet — and was never seriously threatened. He was moving through the men's field on the closing Snow King→Finish segment, posting one of the stronger splits of the day on that stretch. When you live in Truckee and train at altitude, the thin air above Palisades Tahoe is home turf, and it showed.

Sito Luis Salas made the trip from Inca, Spain count, running 37:42 for a clear 2nd place — a solid 1:25 ahead of 3rd. Behind him, Kevin Sawchuk (39:07) was the story of the podium: at 59, the oldest man in the top three, he held off Bowie Hillberg (39:21) by 14 seconds to lock up bronze. Sawchuk's Snow King→Finish split actually slipped him two spots in the broader men's field on that final push, suggesting he may have given everything on the lower slopes to build his cushion.

The real drama unfolded in the chase pack. Jay King came through the men's field strongly before the final segment — sitting 115th among men at Snow King — but faded to 125th by the finish, getting swallowed by the closing surge. That allowed Jed Deorsay (39:35) and Greg Larkin (39:39) to close within 15 seconds of him, making 5th through 7th the tightest cluster of the entire M50-59 field. With 17 mph winds and 19% humidity keeping conditions dry and breezy at elevation, there were no excuses — just 42 men racing a mountain.