M0-19 at the Shamrock Marathon: Curulla dominates in 2:39:51

• Ben Curulla wins by 36:21, finishing in 2:39:51 (6:06/mi) — the most commanding gap on the M0-19 podium.
• Three finishers within 96 seconds: Jake Graham (2nd, 3:16:12), James Sides (3rd, 3:17:27), and Lucas Hecker (4th, 3:18:03) waged a tight three-way battle for the minor places.
• Vance Delashmutt's closing kick: the 18-year-old posted the 20th-fastest split in the field on the 25.2M–Finish stretch, vaulting from deep in the women's standings to finish 5th in 3:23:38.
• 16-year-olds on the board: Lucas Hecker (4th, 3:18:03) and Luke Fischer (11th, 3:54:44) both completed the marathon, with Hecker's 7:33/mi pace placing him squarely in the thick of the under-19 battle.

Ben Curulla made the M0-19 race his own from early on. The 19-year-old Virginia Beach native ran a 6:06/mi average to finish in 2:39:51 — a margin of more than half an hour over the rest of the field. His moves tell the story of a patient, methodical climb: he slipped briefly from 19th to 20th among men in the early miles, but steadily reeled in competitors, reaching 11th among men by the penultimate checkpoint. He also closed with the 6th-fastest split among women on the 25.2M–Finish segment, meaning his final push was genuinely scorching relative to the entire field on a humid, breezy Virginia Beach morning.

Behind Curulla, the real drama played out between Jake Graham, James Sides, and Lucas Hecker. Graham (2nd, 3:16:12, 7:29/mi) held his position through the middle miles, but Sides (3rd, 3:17:27, 7:32/mi) and Hecker (4th, 3:18:03, 7:33/mi) were both closing hard over the final stretch — Sides and Hecker each posted top-100 splits among women on the 25.2M–Finish segment, making up significant ground. The 75-second gap separating 2nd through 4th reflects three runners who ran very different races to nearly the same clock.

Vance Delashmutt (5th, 3:23:38) was one of the day's most notable movers. Starting deep in the field, he progressively worked his way up and unleashed the 20th-fastest closing split in the field from 25.2M to the finish — the strongest late surge of anyone in the M0-19 group. Seth Carolino (6th, 3:28:55), Liam Moore (7th, 3:30:17), and Brian Gregoire (8th, 3:32:28) rounded out a competitive top eight, all finishing within four minutes of each other at paces between 7:58 and 8:06 per mile. With 42 finishers total, the M0-19 field at Shamrock 2026 showed genuine depth across the board.