M19 & Under: Teddy Helden Runs Down the Field

• Teddy Helden, 16, wins in 2:53:48 (6:38/mi) — the fastest in the M19 & Under field by 45 seconds over Walter Chang's 2:54:33.
• Three runners finish within 4:13 of each other — Helden, Chang (2:54:33), and Felix Thiess-Helden (2:56:30) — before a 1:31 gap opens to 4th-place Ides Tanghe (2:58:01).
• Helden posted the 17th-fastest split on the 10.87 Miles→Garmin Hill Challenge segment among all women and men — a decisive surge on one of the course's signature stretches.
• Brandon Mai, just 15, finishes 9th in 3:12:10 — and Rocco Jerwers, also 15, crosses in 13th at 3:18:37, two of the youngest in a 122-finisher field.

Teddy Helden's race was defined by relentless forward movement. Starting outside the top 200 among all women runners, the 16-year-old from Hudson, NY, climbed steadily through the field — 203rd at the first checkpoint, 152nd, 140th, 124th — before his 17th-fastest split on the Garmin Hill Challenge segment pushed him into the top 100 among women overall. By the finish he had reached 54th among women, a charge through the field that turned a patient early effort into a convincing win at 2:53:48.

Walter Chang of Fremont ran a very different race. Already positioned 36th among women at the first checkpoint, he settled into a consistent rhythm through the middle miles, hovering in the 60s. He didn't fade dramatically, but Helden's hill surge was the decisive move Chang couldn't match. Chang's 47th-fastest women's split on the closing 25 Miles→Finish stretch showed he had legs left at the end, but the gap was already set — 45 seconds back at 2:54:33. Right behind him, Felix Thiess-Helden — also 16, also from Hudson, NY — finished 3rd in 2:56:30, mirroring his compatriot's hill-segment strength with the 37th-fastest women's split on that same Garmin Hill Challenge stretch.

Ides Tanghe of Brugge rounded out the podium in 4th at 2:58:01, having posted the 37th-fastest women's split on the 5.55–6.52 Miles segment — an early burst that moved him from 229th to 89th among women by the midpoint. Catcher Kemmerer (5th, 3:03:06) held steady through the back half, logging the 97th-fastest women's split on the 18 Miles→25 Miles stretch to seal his top-five finish. Then came a three-way cluster: Ian Ta (6th, 3:10:32), Alex Parikh-Briggs (7th, 3:10:36), and Harley Rivera (8th, 3:10:40) — separated by just eight seconds across the three of them. Also worth noting: Dylan Tai, 17th in the marathon at 3:19:48, had already raced the Saturday 5K, finishing 9th among men in that event — a full weekend of racing for the Milpitas runner.