M0-19: Figueroa Dominates the Santa Rosa 10K Boys

• Alexis Figueroa won the M0-19 field in 40:59 (6:36/mi) — finishing more than 6 minutes ahead of the next finisher.
• Nicholas Espinoza, 15, claimed 2nd in 47:01; Andrew Wu and Elijah Cruz were separated by just 11 seconds in a tight battle for 3rd and 4th (48:45 vs. 48:56).
• Thomas Moore, age 11, finished 9th in 1:16:33 — one of the youngest competitors in the field.
• Charlie Cavagna, 14, rounded out the top six in 54:22, completing a front pack of six finishers all under 55 minutes.

Alexis Figueroa, 19, from Santa Rosa, made this race his own from the start. His 6:36/mi pace produced a 40:59 finish that left the rest of the M0-19 field well behind — the gap to 2nd place Nicholas Espinoza stretched to over six minutes. On a cool, lightly rainy morning in Santa Rosa, Figueroa ran like a man on a different course entirely.

Behind him, Espinoza (47:01) and a tight cluster of teenagers made the race genuinely interesting. Andrew Wu (48:45) and Elijah Cruz (48:56) ran nearly stride for stride to the line, separated by just 11 seconds across 6.2 miles. Cooper Gibb, 15, followed in 52:05, and 14-year-old Charlie Cavagna closed out the sub-55-minute group in 54:22 — a strong showing from one of the younger competitors at the front.

The back half of the field told a different story, with finishing times ranging from Sean Murphy's 1:10:29 in 7th to Shreyas Pai's 1:33:32 in 15th. The standout note there belongs to Thomas Moore — just 11 years old, from San Francisco — who crossed in 1:16:33 to finish 9th among 15 boys. Getting to the finish line of a 10K at that age is an achievement worth naming.