M1-14: Jalen Griego Blazes to the Win at 5:19/mi

• Jalen Griego, age 2 (yes, 2), finished 1st in M1-14 in 1:09:39 at a 5:19/mi average — by far the fastest performance in the field.
• Griego's middle segment (5.5M–10.8M) was the 5th-fastest women's split in the entire race field on that stretch — a remarkable marker of pace against the broader race.
• Becker Bishop (2nd, 1:42:04) and Arick Calderon (3rd, 1:44:20) were separated by just 2:16 for the runner-up spot, with Bishop holding the edge at 7:47/mi to Calderon's 7:58/mi.
• The M1-14 field of 24 spanned a wide range: from Griego's 1:09:39 to Fernando Casas's 3:06:02 (20th, 14:11/mi), a spread of nearly two hours.

Jalen Griego, listed at age 2 from Barstow, CA, delivered the most eye-catching result of the day in the M1-14 field, crossing in 1:09:39 at a searing 5:19/mi — a full 32 minutes clear of the next finisher. That gap alone tells the story: this was not a competitive race for the top spot. Griego also posted the 5th-fastest split on the 5.5M–10.8M segment among all women in the field, underlining just how swift that middle stretch was.

Behind him, Becker Bishop of Aliso Viejo claimed 2nd in 1:42:04 (7:47/mi), while Inglewood's Arick Calderon took 3rd in 1:44:20 (7:58/mi). Bishop ran the faster middle segment — Calderon's strongest relative showing came on the 10.8M-to-finish stretch, where he posted the 662nd-fastest split in the women's field, edging ahead of Bishop's 614th on that same leg. The 2:16 gap between them at the line reflects Bishop's stronger early pacing.

Zee Castro (4th, 1:48:45, 8:18/mi) and Mikael Khani (5th, 1:56:41, 8:54/mi) rounded out the top five, with Khani notably consistent — his gender place barely shifted across the entire race, moving from 1,377th to 1,373rd. Jeremiah Ramirez (6th, 2:03:13) and Michael Tryon (7th, 2:06:40) followed close behind before the field spread out considerably through the back half.

The middle of the pack saw a tight cluster around the 2:22 mark: Julian Montes (12th, 2:22:33), Juan de Leon (13th, 2:22:35), and Jason Ibrahim (14th, 2:22:55) finished within 22 seconds of one another. From there, the field stretched all the way to Fernando Casas in 20th at 3:06:02 — a full 13:49 behind 19th-place Nathaniel Cante (3:03:34) — with four more finishers beyond him completing the 24-strong M1-14 field.