F25-29: Meseret Belete Tola Dominates from the Gun

• Tola wins in 1:09:35 (5:18/mi), holding 1st among women from the opening checkpoint to the finish line — wire-to-wire dominance in a 1,166-runner F25-29 field.
• Lindsey Bradley runs the 5th-fastest closing split (15K to finish) among all women to claim 2nd in 1:12:37 — a 3:02 gap back from Tola, but a strong surge to the tape.
• Bontu Rebitu rounds out the podium in 1:14:04, posting the 8th-fastest women's split on the early 5K–8K stretch before settling into 3rd.
• Positions 6–12 separated by just 1:16 (1:26:17 to 1:29:49), making the mid-pack battle one of the tightest of the morning.

Meseret Belete Tola, 25, from West Chester, OH, left no drama at the top. She sat 1st among women at every single checkpoint — 5K, 8K, 15K, and the finish — and backed it up with the fastest women's split on the 5K–8K segment. At 5:18 per mile for 13.1 miles on a breezy Chicago morning, this was a performance that never wavered.

Behind her, Lindsey Bradley told a different kind of story. Starting the race 8th among women and holding steady through the middle miles, Bradley saved her best for last — her 5th-fastest women's closing split from 15K to the finish was the move that locked up 2nd place in 1:12:37. Bontu Rebitu, also 25, was the early aggressor of the two, posting the 8th-fastest women's split in that 5K–8K corridor before settling into 3rd at 1:14:04. The podium trio were all separated by 4:29 — a clear top three in an otherwise tightly packed field.

From 4th onward, the race compressed quickly. Rita Moore ran a measured 5:58/mi to finish 4th in 1:18:16, while Paola Ramos of Aibonito — the lone non-mainland finisher in the top five — crossed 5th in 1:25:46. Then came a genuine scrum: Rita Maurais, Claire Kenny, Sofia Carias, Molly Kozlowski, and Amelia Bertaud all finished between 1:26:17 and 1:29:08, with Grace Rogers and Stephanie Kies both clocking 6:51/mi to finish 11th and 12th respectively, separated by just four seconds.