Fort Ord 10K Women's 18–29: Bucci Storms the Back Half to Take the Win

• Angela Bucci won the F18-29 group in 53:46 (8:39/mi), posting the fastest Skyline→Finish split among all women after entering that segment 4th in the women's field.
• Kylie Johnson finished 2nd in 54:34 — just 48 seconds back — with the 2nd-fastest women's Skyline→Finish split, making the closing stretch a two-woman showcase at the front.
• Mariela Martin Del Campo was the race's biggest mover, climbing from 12th among women at the Skyline checkpoint to 5th by the finish — and 3rd in the F18-29 group — with the 3rd-fastest women's closing split.
• The top three swept the fastest three women's Skyline→Finish splits in the entire field, a remarkable concentration of late-race speed from one age group.

Angela Bucci didn't lead early. Sitting 4th among women through the Skyline checkpoint, the 27-year-old from Carmel Valley turned the final stretch into her personal proving ground. Her Skyline→Finish split was the fastest of any woman on the course, and it was enough to vault her to the top of both the F18-29 group and the women's field. A 53:46 finish at 8:39/mi on Fort Ord's sandy, rolling trails is a serious number.

Kylie Johnson made her push at exactly the same moment. The Monterey local ran the 2nd-fastest women's closing split and moved from 5th to 2nd among women, finishing 48 seconds behind Bucci. That gap looks clean on paper, but the fact that both women were accelerating through the same stretch makes it a genuine late-race duel — just one that Bucci won decisively.

The subplot of the race belonged to Mariela Martin Del Campo. The 24-year-old from Monterey was 12th among women at Skyline and finished 5th — a swing of seven places driven by the 3rd-fastest women's closing split in the field. She crossed in 58:27 to claim the final F18-29 podium spot by nearly four minutes over 4th-place Kalista Traversa.

Behind the top four, the F18-29 field spread across a wide range of finishing times, from Jenna Knowles' 1:05:25 in 5th through a tight cluster between 1:09 and 1:13 for places 6 through 12. Sixteen women finished the group in total — a solid turnout for a chilly February morning on the Central Coast.