Boys 10-and-Under: Aiden Lota Storms to Victory at the Shamrock 8K

• Aiden Lota, age 10, wins in 30:00 — a 6:02/mi average that left the rest of the M0-10 field in his wake.
• Owen Rice, age 8, earns a remarkable 2nd place in 36:17 (7:18/mi) — the youngest athlete on the podium, finishing more than six minutes behind Lota but over four and a half ahead of 3rd.
• Giovanni Prestera, age 9, rounds out the podium in 40:53 (8:13/mi), completing a top three separated by nearly 11 minutes from first to third.
• 52 boys aged 10 and under toed the line on a cool, breezy Virginia Beach morning — 53°F and a 10 mph wind off the coast.

Ten-year-old Aiden Lota of Chesapeake put on a clinic, covering the 8K at a 6:02/mi clip to win the M0-10 field by over six minutes. That pace was genuinely swift by any measure — swift enough that Lota posted the 19th-fastest split among women in the field on the 2M-to-4M stretch, holding his own against the full adult women's race through the heart of the course.

Owen Rice of Virginia Beach deserves a special mention: at just eight years old, he claimed 2nd in 36:17, a 7:18/mi effort that was a full 6:17 slower than Lota but more than four and a half minutes clear of the next finisher. Giovanni Prestera, age 9, took 3rd in 40:53 (8:13/mi), and while he faded slightly on the back half — his women's field split position dropped from 223rd to 233rd between 4M and the finish — he held on for a well-earned podium.

The rest of the field showed genuine range. Wesley Detweiler (4th, 51:59) and Brayden Milchuck (5th, 52:34) ran nearly identical finish times — just 35 seconds apart — but Detweiler actually ran the 2M-to-4M segment faster (602nd vs. 609th in the women's splits), while Milchuck was the stronger closer on the 4M-to-finish stretch. Owen Mathis finished 7th in 52:55, narrowly ahead of a trio of finishers clustered around the 1:10 mark. All told, 52 boys 10 and under crossed the line on a brisk Shamrock Saturday — a field that, from front to back, covered nearly 40 minutes of racing.