F35-39: Leuenberger Dominates at 7:01 Pace in the Central Valley Heat

• Brittany Leuenberger won F35-39 in 3:04:01 (7:01/mi), holding 3rd among women for most of the race before finishing as the group's clear champion.
• Lauren Metzger climbed from 8th to 5th among women by the half and held it to the finish, crossing in 3:09:44 — 5:43 back of Leuenberger.
• Brianna Kauk rounded out the podium in 3:17:30, posting the 5th-fastest women's split from mile 1 to 10K while working her way to 3rd in F35-39.
• The top three were separated by 13:29 total, while places 8 through 13 were compressed into just 2:49 — a tight mid-pack battle from 4:17 to 4:20.

Brittany Leuenberger ran 74°F Fresno like she owned it. Locked in at 3rd among women from the opening mile through the halfway point, she never wavered, sustaining a 7:01/mi average across all 26.2 miles. Her 1M-to-10K split ranked 3rd-fastest among the women — an early signal that she was in a different gear than the rest of F35-39. She crossed in 3:04:01, a convincing win in a group of 29.

Lauren Metzger made the most compelling move of the race. She entered the 10K-to-half stretch in 7th among women and exited it in 5th, posting the 5th-fastest women's split on that segment. She held that position all the way to the finish line, clocking 3:09:44 at 7:14/mi — a well-executed negative-momentum climb through the field that earned her a clear second place in F35-39.

Brianna Kauk also showed early strength, sharing that 5th-fastest women's split from mile 1 to 10K with Metzger. But while Metzger was rising through the women's standings in the back half, Kauk drifted from 5th to 8th among women before recovering to 6th by the finish — a 3:17:30 that still secured third in the age group. Michelle Gensler (4th, 3:34:39) and Sarah Morales (5th, 3:44:48) both made notable moves through the field in the 10K-to-half segment, with Morales climbing from 44th among women all the way to 22nd by that checkpoint before settling at 24th at the finish.