Rocket City Half Marathon: Avery Evans closes strong to claim F20-24

• Avery Evans won the F20-24 age group in 1:41:40 (7:45/mi), climbing from 8th to 3rd among women overall on the strength of the 2nd-fastest women's split from 8M to the finish.
• Ansley Scales held 6th among women through 8M before fading to 8th, finishing 2nd in F20-24 in 1:43:01 — just 1:21 behind Evans.
• Olivia Marsh rounded out the podium in 1:43:45, holding steady at 12th among women for a composed, consistent close.
• Holly Blackwood was the biggest mover of the back half, surging from 47th to 34th among women on the 8M-to-finish stretch with the 23rd-fastest women's split on that segment, climbing to 5th in F20-24.

The headline story in F20-24 belongs to Avery Evans, and it was written in the second half of the race. Running through mild December conditions in her home city of Huntsville, Evans was sitting 8th among women at the 8-mile mark — good, but not dominant. What followed was a closing split second only among all women in the field, and it moved her all the way to 3rd in the women's race. In F20-24, it was never close.

Scales and Marsh made it a local podium sweep — all three women hail from Alabama — but the gap between them and Evans widened decisively in those final miles. Scales actually held a higher position among women than Evans through 8M, sitting 6th, but her 7th-fastest women's closing split couldn't match Evans's gear change. Marsh was the steadiest of the three, barely shifting in the women's standings from start to finish.

Further back, Bonnie Hunnicutt held 4th in F20-24 at 1:48:48, with a clear five-minute gap separating the top three from the rest of the age group. Holly Blackwood's late surge was the most dramatic individual move in the field, vaulting from 47th to 34th among women across those final miles. The battle between 8th and 9th — Ashli Evans and Sydney Sanker, both clocking 1:58:07 — was decided by the timing system alone, with Ashli Evans edging ahead by a fraction of a second.