Rocket City 10K Men: Segrest Holds Off a Four-Way Photo Finish

• Top four separated by 23 seconds: Rob Segrest won in 7:40:31, with David Bains (2nd, 7:40:36), Paul Escajadillo (3rd, 7:40:48), and Jonathan Kline (4th, 7:40:54) all within 23 seconds of the top.
• Double-race weekend: Escajadillo (3rd, 7:40:48) also finished 2nd among men in the 5K; Kline (4th, 7:40:54), Dobbins (8th, 7:45:12), and Ruzek (6th, 7:44:44) likewise raced the 5K, finishing 7th, 8th, and 10th there respectively.
• Age defying the field: William Angotta, 63, crossed 10th in 7:46:44 — ahead of 107 other men's finishers.
• A Fowler family affair: Seth Fowler (16th, 7:48:57) and Bart Fowler (17th, 7:49:33) finished back-to-back, separated by just 36 seconds.

Rob Segrest of Brownsboro, AL took the men's title in 7:40:31, but he had to earn every second of it. Neighbor and training partner David Bains pushed him all the way to the line, finishing just five seconds back in 7:40:36. That's not a comfortable margin — that's a sprint finish stretched across 10 kilometers in Huntsville's warm, humid December air.

The battle for the podium was equally fierce. Paul Escajadillo (7:40:48) and Jonathan Kline (7:40:54) completed a top-four cluster that spanned only 23 seconds. What makes Escajadillo's bronze particularly impressive is the context: he was also 2nd among men in the 5K earlier in the weekend. Racing hard across two events and still landing on the podium of both is a genuine feat. Kline, Ruzek, and Dobbins similarly backed up 5K efforts with strong 10K showings — a sign of real depth in the local and regional field.

Scott Sandlin held 5th in 7:44:17, and from there the next cluster — Ruzek (6th, 7:44:44), Goins (7th, 7:44:57), Dobbins (8th, 7:45:12), and Jacob Fowler (9th, 7:45:30) — filed in over the next 73 seconds. William Angotta, 63, deserves a special mention for finishing 10th in 7:46:44, with Drew Bell, 57, right behind him in 11th at 7:46:45. In a men's field of 117, those two veterans outran the vast majority of the competition.