Women's 5K: Pradere Takes San Francisco in 18:32

• Abigail Pradere won in 18:32 (5:58/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the second half of the course to seal it.
• Mackinly Kifer finished 2nd in 19:25 with the 2nd-fastest women's closing split — and had already raced the full Marathon earlier in the weekend, finishing 9th among women there.
• Hazel Zielen-Ersing, just 15 years old from Buffalo, claimed 3rd in 20:55, edging 17-year-old Rachel Yim (4th, 21:03) by eight seconds.
• A four-woman sprint from 5th through 8th: Brooke Soobrian (21:06), Ashlin Mallon (21:08), Alicia Rider (21:13), and Kyla Maher (21:18) — separated by just 12 seconds across four finishers.

Abigail Pradere, 25, from Carson City, ran the kind of race that leaves no room for doubt. She led wire-to-wire — holding 1st among women from the opening checkpoint through the finish — and turned the screws on the back half, posting the fastest women's closing split of the day to cross in 18:32 at a 5:58/mi clip. With a 17 mph wind off the Bay and 60°F temperatures, that's a sharp performance in a field of 984 women.

Mackinly Kifer's 2nd-place finish in 19:25 deserves a separate headline of its own. The 27-year-old from Shiner, TX, had already run the full San Francisco Marathon earlier in the weekend, placing 9th among women in that race — and then came back to run the 5K at 6:15/mi, producing the 2nd-fastest women's closing split. That kind of double commitment is one of the weekend's best stories.

The teenager battle for the podium was fierce. Hazel Zielen-Ersing, at just 15, held 3rd from start to finish in 20:55, while 17-year-old Rachel Yim came on strong over the closing stretch — posting the 7th-fastest women's closing split — to move up from 5th to 4th and finish in 21:03. Yim closed the gap but couldn't quite catch Zielen-Ersing.

Then there's Ashlin Mallon. The 17-year-old from Santa Rosa finished 6th in 21:08 — but she won this very race in 2025 (20:05) and stood on the podium in 2024 (3rd, 20:52). Defending a title at the San Francisco 5K is no small thing, and while Mallon couldn't reclaim the top spot, her 21:08 in a stacked field keeps her firmly in the conversation heading into future editions.