M20-29: Forrey Flies in the Mist, Lapping the Field at 5:28 Pace

• Noah Forrey, 29, wins in 16:58 — a 5:28/mi average that put him 2:00 clear of 2nd place.
• Jeremiah Cano, 22, takes 2nd in 18:58 — nearly a full two minutes ahead of 3rd, making the top two a class of their own.
• Tight battle for 3rd: Robert Arroyo Hernandez (20:47) edged Kevin Jesus Ramirez (21:01) by just 14 seconds.
• Places 15–17 finished within two seconds of each other: David Solorzano (25:14), Dasan Howell (25:15), and Samuel Ortiz (25:16) in a photo-finish cluster mid-pack.

On a cool, misty Santa Rosa morning, Noah Forrey of Gillette, WY, turned in a performance that belonged in a different race. His 16:58 — 5:28 per mile through the humidity — put him two full minutes ahead of anyone else in the M20-29 field of 87. That's not a win; that's a statement.

Jeremiah Cano, the 22-year-old hometown runner from Santa Rosa, claimed a commanding 2nd in 18:58 at 6:06/mi. The gap between him and the rest of the podium was nearly as striking as Forrey's margin over him — Cano crossed nearly two minutes before 3rd place. Behind him, Robert Arroyo Hernandez (20:47, 6:41/mi) and Kevin Jesus Ramirez (21:01, 6:46/mi) waged a genuine fight for bronze, with Hernandez holding on by 14 seconds. Luis Camacho rounded out the top five in 21:50 at 7:02/mi — a noticeably slower pace than the 6:46 Ramirez ran to edge him out of 4th.

The mid-pack produced its own drama. David Solorzano (25:14), Dasan Howell (25:15), and Samuel Ortiz (25:16) finished in a two-second window across 15th, 16th, and 17th — three runners separated by less than a heartbeat after more than 3 miles of racing in the mist. It was the tightest cluster of the morning, a fitting coda to a race that delivered both a runaway winner and a genuinely contested chase behind him.