M35-39 10K: Rosas dominates a deep Fresno field

• Christian Rosas won the M35-39 group in 41:48 (6:44/mi), finishing 3:29 clear of 2nd place.
• Rick Grijalva claimed 2nd in 45:17 (7:17/mi), with Daniel Ruiz taking 3rd in 47:19 (7:37/mi).
• The top 5 were separated by just 7:28 across a span from 41:48 to 49:16 — then a gap of over 2:24 back to 6th.
• 26 men finished in M35-39, with times ranging from Rosas's 41:48 all the way to the back of the pack.

Christian Rosas made the M35-39 race his own from the start. His 6:44/mi average was a full 33 seconds per mile faster than runner-up Rick Grijalva's 7:17/mi — not a photo finish, but a wire-to-wire statement. The 3:29 margin at the line tells the story plainly: Rosas was in a different gear entirely.

Behind him, the battle for the podium was genuinely competitive. Grijalva (45:17) held off Daniel Ruiz (3rd, 47:19) by just over two minutes, while Blake Hovsepian pressed hard to finish 4th in 48:14 — less than a minute back from Ruiz. Jose Bribiesca rounded out the top five in 49:16, keeping the pressure on through the final stretch. Four men separated by barely a minute across places 2 through 5 made for a compelling mid-race fight even as Rosas pulled away up front.

The field spread out considerably from 6th place onward. Eddie Molina (6th, 51:40) and Brian Mehlman (7th, 53:46) maintained solid sub-9:00/mi efforts, while Michael Cipolla (8th, 54:10) was close behind. The back half of the named finishers ranged from Andrew Romero's 57:27 in 9th through Sukhpal Hayer's 1:22:41 in 20th — a reminder that the M35-39 group drew a wide range of runners across the Central Valley, from Clovis to Hanford to Madera, all converging on Fresno on a late-October morning.