Two Cities Half Marathon F35-39: Kauk Surges Home to Take the Title

• Brianna Kauk won the F35-39 age group in 1:35:12 (7:16/mi), climbing from 20th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 5th by the finish.
• Erica Cuellar pushed her hard, finishing just 11 seconds back in 1:35:23 — but it was Kauk who ran the stronger second half to seal it.
• The top four all cracked 1:39, with Michelle Gensler (1:37:09) and Katie Burns (1:38:51) rounding out a sharp podium and fourth place.
• A field of 112 finishers in F35-39 made this one of the day's most competitive age groups on the course.

The story of this race was written in the back half. Brianna Kauk, 35, from Kingsburg, came through the opening mile in 20th among all women — patient, measured, not yet showing her hand. By the 10K mark she had moved up to 13th, and then she unleashed a 7th-fastest women's split on the 10K-to-finish stretch to rocket all the way to 5th among women overall. In the F35-39 age group, that finishing surge was decisive, and she crossed in 1:35:12.

Erica Cuellar told a different story. The Sanger runner was the aggressor early, posting the 6th-fastest women's split on the opening 1M-to-10K segment and vaulting from 19th among women all the way to 5th by the halfway point. But where Cuellar faded slightly in the back half — slipping to 7th among women — Kauk was gaining. The 11-second gap at the line captures the catch-up perfectly: nearly identical finish times, very different paths to get there.

Michelle Gensler, also 35, ran a composed race from Fresno, holding 9th among women at the finish with the 10th-fastest women's closing split, good for 1:37:09 and third in the age group. Katie Burns, 39, from Logan, Utah, was the fastest finisher on the 1M-to-10K leg (12th among women) but gave some back late, sliding from 8th to 13th among women by the end — still a strong 1:38:51 for fourth. Kimberly Prins rounded out the top five in 1:43:50, a full five minutes clear of sixth.