M1-29: Grant Rogers Wins in Folsom Fashion

• Grant Rogers, 18, crossed in 1:43:12 (7:53/mi) to claim the M1-29 title — more than 2½ minutes clear of runner-up Leonid Huth.
• Leonid Huth, just 12 years old, finished 2nd in 1:45:42, with fellow 12-year-old Toby Lipscomb rounding out the podium in 1:47:35 — two middle-schoolers on the M1-29 podium.
• Antonio Cormier started fast — entering the Out & Back-to-Lap 1 stretch in 6th among men — but faded to 16th among men by the finish, slipping to 4th in M1-29.
• William and Spenser Nichols finished 10th and 11th, separated by just 3 seconds after 13.1 miles of racing in the Sacramento fog.

Grant Rogers set the tone early and never let up. Moving from 12th to 9th to 8th among men across the course's checkpoints, the 18-year-old from Folsom ran a controlled, progressive race at 7:53 per mile — a pace none of his M1-29 rivals could match. His 2:30 margin over Huth was decisive, and his Lap 1-to-finish split ranked 7th among all men in the field, a genuinely strong closing effort on a damp, foggy Sacramento morning.

The youth story in this group is hard to ignore. Huth and Lipscomb — both 12 years old, from Sacramento and Roseville respectively — finished 2nd and 3rd, running 1:45:42 and 1:47:35. Lipscomb was the more aggressive mover of the two, climbing from 15th among men to 10th through the middle of the race before settling into 12th. Huth was steadier, slipping one spot early before recovering to 10th among men at the line. Either way, both performances are remarkable for their age.

Antonio Cormier's race told a different story. The 19-year-old from El Dorado Hills was 6th among men through the early going — the strongest position of anyone in this group at that stage — but couldn't hold it. He faded to 16th among men by the finish and 4th in M1-29, a reminder that early positioning and final position don't always match.

At the back, the Nichols duo — William and Spenser, both 16 from Sacramento — crossed within 3 seconds of each other after nearly four hours of racing, finishing 10th and 11th. Whether they ran it together by design or just found each other on the course, the result was as close as it gets without being a tie.