M25-29 Five-K: Friesen Takes the Win in a Tight Three-Man Battle

• Joshua Friesen won the M25-29 group in 22:19 (7:11/mi), holding off a close chase from two fellow Fresno-area runners.
• The podium was decided in under 29 seconds — Friesen, William Pallesi (22:33), and Irving Palomino (22:48) were all done before the fourth-place finisher was even at the four-minute mark of his final mile.
• A sharp gap separated the podium from the rest: AJ Lopez finished 4th in 23:59, more than a minute behind Palomino and over a minute ahead of 5th.
• 28 men completed the M25-29 race on a warm November morning in Fresno — 74°F and clear skies made for honest conditions.

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Joshua Friesen, 28, from Fresno, set the tone early and never let it slip. His 7:11/mi pace was the sharpest in the M25-29 group and good enough to win comfortably — though "comfortably" is relative when William Pallesi was only 14 seconds back at the line. Pallesi, 25, ran a composed 7:15/mi to claim 2nd, and Irving Palomino of Arcata made it a genuine three-way contest, crossing in 22:48 at 7:20/mi for 3rd. Those three men ran a genuinely tight race; fewer than 30 seconds covered the entire podium.

After Palomino, the field spread out considerably. AJ Lopez held 4th in 23:59 — a full 71 seconds off the podium — before the next real cluster formed around the 25–30 minute range. Samuel Tukia (25:42) and Ryan Cherry (27:57) bookended a stretch where the pace softened noticeably, with the group from 5th through 7th spanning just over two and a half minutes. From there, the back half of the field stretched across nearly 18 minutes of finish times, reflecting the full range of effort and experience that a local 5K draws on a warm Sunday morning.