M19 & Under: Ryan Chen Runs Away from the Field

• Ryan Chen, 18, wins in 1:18:12 (5:58/mi) — the only finisher under 1:20 in the under-19 field of 81.
• Four runners separated by just 4 seconds for 3rd through 6th: Mitchell Larrieta Angeles (1:22:57), Alex Yoshino (1:23:01), Anthony Sharp (1:23:05), and Isaac Albert (1:23:06).
• Larrieta Angeles posted the fastest final push (12M→Finish) among all men; Yoshino and Sharp were 3rd and 2nd on that same closing stretch — a three-way sprint to the line.
• Colton Ryssemus, 17, ran the 5th-fastest split on the 8M→9.6M segment among the men, helping him climb from 15th to 2nd by the finish in 1:22:25.

Ryan Chen did not ease into this race. The 18-year-old from Sunnyvale moved fluidly through the men's field — sitting around 3rd–4th in the early miles, drifting as deep as 9th in the gender standings mid-race before surging back to 3rd among men by the finish — and his 5:58/mi average left everyone else in the under-19 field more than four minutes behind. He also posted the 2nd-fastest split among men on the 10M→10.5M stretch, a sign that his mid-race movement was no accident. His 1:18:12 stands alone at the top of this field.

The real drama played out behind him. Colton Ryssemus (1:22:25) claimed 2nd with a strong 8M→9.6M surge — the 5th-fastest men's split on that segment — climbing steadily from 15th at the start to 7th among men by the finish. Then came an extraordinary four-man cluster: Larrieta Angeles, Yoshino, Sharp, and Albert all crossed in a 9-second window from 1:22:57 to 1:23:06. Larrieta Angeles, 19, from Oakland, had started conservatively (52nd in the men's field early on) but ran the fastest men's closing split from 12M to the finish, catching and passing rivals in the final mile to land 3rd in 1:22:57. Sharp and Yoshino were right on his heels — 2nd and 3rd on that same closing segment — making it a genuine sprint for the podium's lower steps.

Further back, 16-year-old Charlie Rubenstein (1:28:35) and Paolo Gori (1:29:17) rounded out the top nine, with Donovan Carlson (1:29:18) just one second behind Gori in 10th. Among the youngest in the field, 14-year-old Ethan Wong from San Jose finished 16th in 1:40:53 — a notable showing in a competitive under-19 field on a cool, breezy San Francisco morning.