F35-39 Half Marathon: Dennise Salazar-Maravilla Dominates in Fresno Heat

• Salazar-Maravilla wins in 1:28:34 — a 6:45/mi pace that put her 6th among all women on the opening 1M→10K segment and ultimately 4th in the entire women's field.
• Yanet Arikian runs 1:34:24 to claim 2nd in F35-39, also firing a top-12 women's split on the 1M→10K, finishing 10th among all women.
• Chris Hiatt makes the biggest move of the podium, climbing from 31st to 21st among all women in the back half with the 19th-fastest women's split on the 10K→Finish segment.
• Nicole Nast and Laura Calderwood round out the top five, separated by 2:26 — Nast strong early, Calderwood surging late with the 29th-fastest women's closing split.

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Dennise Salazar-Maravilla, 35, from right here in Fresno, made this race look like a controlled workout. She crossed the 10K checkpoint already sitting 4th among all women, and she held that position all the way to the tape in 1:28:34 — 6:45 per mile through 74-degree heat and clear skies. That's not a race she stumbled into winning; she went out with purpose and delivered on it. Yanet Arikian of Madera was similarly sharp early, posting the 12th-fastest women's split in the opening stretch and finishing in 1:34:24 — a comfortable 2nd in the age group and 10th among all women.

The more dramatic story unfolded a little further back. Chris Hiatt, also 35 and from Fresno, started the race buried in 106th place among women. By the 10K mark she had climbed to 31st, and she wasn't done — her 19th-fastest women's closing split carried her all the way to 21st in the women's field and the final podium spot in F35-39, finishing in 1:41:06. Nicole Nast, 39, from Clovis, built her race the other way — strong in the first half, holding on to 4th in 1:42:16. Laura Calderwood, a visitor from Flagstaff, mirrored Hiatt's back-half strength with the 29th-fastest women's closing split to claim 5th in 1:44:42.

With 129 finishers, F35-39 was one of the deeper age groups on the course, and the spread told its own story: nearly 22 minutes separated Salazar-Maravilla from 6th-place Rosa Marmolejo, while positions 12 and 13 — Karina Perez and Jessica Alloway — finished just one second apart at 1:58:47 and 1:58:48. A full and competitive field, top to bottom.