M35-39: Wilks Wires It in Virginia Beach

• Joshua Wilks won the M35-39 age group in 1:13:54 (5:38/mi), finishing 13th among men overall.
• Ermin Mujezinovic was 17 seconds back in 2nd at 1:14:11, with the two trading positions throughout the race before Wilks pulled clear.
• Nathaniel Bishop and Jordan Chang ran nearly identical races to claim 3rd and 4th — separated by just 24 seconds at the line (1:17:16 vs. 1:17:40).
• 5th and 6th were even tighter: Dashiell Quasebarth edged Adam DeSanctis by just 3 seconds (1:22:11 vs. 1:22:14) after both ran 6:16/mi pace.

With a 71°F morning, 17 mph winds, and 73% humidity pressing down on Virginia Beach, Joshua Wilks ran through it all to take the M35-39 title in 1:13:54 — a 5:38/mi clip that held up as the class of a 346-man field. Wilks wasn't always at the front: he sat 17th among men at the opening checkpoint, methodically climbing to 13th by the finish. His strongest card came late — he posted the 6th-fastest split on the 20K-to-finish stretch in the entire men's field, a closing surge that made the result look more comfortable than the early miles suggested.

Ermin Mujezinovic pushed him hardest. The West Point, NY runner was actually ahead of Wilks among men at the 10K checkpoint, sitting 10th while Wilks was 17th, and he surged again between 10K and 15K — posting the 9th-fastest split on that segment in the men's field. But he couldn't sustain it. By the finish, Mujezinovic had drifted back to 14th among men and 2nd in the age group, 17 seconds behind Wilks. It was a race of moves and countermoves, and Wilks had the better answer when it counted.

Behind them, Nathaniel Bishop and Jordan Chang ran their own quiet duel. Bishop (1:17:16) and Chang (1:17:40) were separated by just 24 seconds over 13.1 miles — Bishop holding 3rd with a 5:54/mi average, Chang just a stride back at 5:55/mi. Then came the sharpest battle of the day: Quasebarth and DeSanctis both crossed in 1:22:1x, with Quasebarth taking 5th by three seconds after climbing steadily from 63rd among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 42nd at the finish — one of the more determined progressions in the age group.