M70-74: Behlen Dominates as Clovis Runners Claim the Top Three

• Steve Behlen (1st, 2:03:07) won the M70-74 group by over nine minutes, averaging a brisk 9:24/mi across 13.1 miles.
• Don Rickels (2nd, 2:12:08) was the group's biggest mover in the back half, climbing from 369th to 333rd among men on the 10K-to-finish stretch — the fastest closing split of any M70-74 finisher.
• Tom Kozera (3rd, 2:15:50) rounded out an all-Clovis podium, with all three men hailing from the same city.
• Stephen Boles (12th, 3:27:19) and Les Beshears (11th, 3:21:20) closed out a 12-man field that spanned nearly 84 minutes from first to last.

Steve Behlen made this one look like a training run — relatively speaking. The 71-year-old from Clovis crossed in 2:03:07 at a 9:24/mi clip, a margin of more than nine minutes over anyone else in the M70-74 group. He did fade slightly in the second half, slipping from 250th to 264th among men on the 10K-to-finish leg, but that minor drift did nothing to threaten his lead. The win was never in doubt.

Behind him, Don Rickels and Tom Kozera — both also from Clovis — locked up 2nd and 3rd to complete a hometown sweep of the podium. Rickels (2:12:08, 10:05/mi) was the standout finisher of the final stretch, climbing 36 spots in the men's field over the last 10K to finish second. Kozera (2:15:50, 10:22/mi) went the other direction, slipping 15 spots in the men's field over the same stretch, but his 3:43 cushion over 4th place was never seriously threatened.

Pete Musto, at 74 the oldest man on the podium chase, finished 4th in 2:31:32 — a solid 11:34/mi — while Pedro Segura (5th, 2:38:27) and Bill Schackart (6th, 2:41:28) were separated by just three minutes in a tightly bunched middle of the field. Philip Hollingsworth (8th, 2:52:31), Salvador Ramirez (9th, 2:58:06), and Ben Bergstrom (10th, 2:59:21) all finished within seven minutes of each other. Les Beshears (11th, 3:21:20) and Stephen Boles (12th, 3:27:19) brought it home to complete the 12-man M70-74 field.