Cleveland Marathon 5K — M20-24: Simon Edges Mathewson by a Heartbeat

• Khalil Simon won the M20-24 group in 23:48 (7:40/mi), holding off Evan Mathewson by a single second.
• The top four finished within 17 seconds of each other — one of the tightest podium clusters in the field.
• Cole Frisby in 5th (25:31) was the last finisher under 8:13/mi pace, opening an 86-second gap back to 6th.
• 34 men aged 20–24 finished on a humid, breezy Cleveland morning — 67°F with 83% humidity and a 15 mph wind.

The story of the M20-24 group came down to a single second. Khalil Simon of the Bronx crossed in 23:48, with Evan Mathewson of Rocky River right on his heels at 23:49. Both averaged 7:40 per mile — the timing clock is the only thing that separates them. That's not a race you lose; that's a race that gets decided by a lean at the line.

Behind that duel, Peter Reynolds (Streetsboro) and Brian White (Euclid) made it a genuine four-man battle at the front. Reynolds finished 3rd in 24:03 and White 4th in 24:05 — another two-second gap, another near-miss. From 1st to 4th, the spread was just 17 seconds across 3.1 miles of running into a stiff lake-city wind.

Then the race broke open. Cole Frisby in 5th came home in 25:31, a full minute and 26 seconds behind Simon but well clear of 6th-place Quincy Lyles (25:47). From there, the field spread steadily, with Charles Putnam (7th, 25:57), Juan Tejeda (8th, 26:06), and Luke Weber (9th, 27:09) each carving out their own space on the course. Anthony Chaney rounded out the top ten in 27:39.

Conditions were no gift to anyone — high humidity and a 15 mph wind have a way of making every mile feel longer than the last. That makes the sub-24-minute battle at the top all the more impressive, and gives every finisher in the M20-24 group something real to take away from a tough morning in Cleveland.