Broken Arrow Skyrace Ascent — F40-49: Scalard Climbs to the Top

• Marny Scalard won the F40-49 field in 58:23 (16:11/mi), the only finisher to break the hour mark — a 42-second cushion over runner-up Lyndsey Bednar.
• Lyndsey Bednar and Anna Gavrilova ran the 2nd- and 3rd-fastest final segments (56th and 57th among all women on the KT 22→Finish stretch), yet couldn't close the gap Scalard had already built.
• The top five were separated by just 2:44 across 39 finishers, while the gap from 5th to 20th stretched to over 20 minutes — a clear break in the field.
• Audrey Kroot (46, Dripping Springs, TX) made the most of a long journey to altitude, slotting 4th in 1:00:46 — just 9 seconds behind Gavrilova.

Marny Scalard of Colorado Springs came to Palisades Tahoe and made the high-elevation ascent look controlled. Running at 16:11/mi through course terrain that tops out near 8,845 feet, she moved through the women's field — from 55th among women at the KT 22 checkpoint to 53rd by the finish — while holding enough margin that no one could threaten her. Her 54th-fastest women's split on that closing segment shows she wasn't coasting, just measured.

Behind her, Bednar and Gavrilova ran strikingly similar final segments — 56th and 57th fastest among all women on the KT 22→Finish stretch — and both gained places in the women's field down the stretch. But with Scalard already ahead on the road, those strong closers earned them the podium rather than the win. Bednar finished in 59:05, Gavrilova in 1:00:37, and Kroot in 1:00:46 — four athletes within 2:23 of each other for spots 1 through 4.

Rachael Cuellar of Albuquerque rounded out the top five in 1:01:07, also gaining ground on the final segment with the 61st-fastest women's split in that stretch. The top five all moved up the women's standings between the checkpoint and the finish line, a sign that the back half of this ascent sorted the field decisively. From Brittany Rezowalli in 6th (1:01:52) on down through the 39 finishers, the gaps widened steadily — a reminder of just how much altitude and vertical can stretch a field across a race like this.