Two Cities Marathon Women: Czuprynski Wires It from Start to Finish

• Sarah Czuprynski won the women's race in 2:40:15 (6:07/mi), leading wire-to-wire across all eight checkpoints and posting the fastest women's split from the gun through 10K.
• Ramona Sanchez, 47, ran 2:51:43 to finish 2nd — an 11:28 gap to the winner, but a commanding result for the oldest athlete on the women's podium.
• Maria Grace completed the podium in 2:54:12 (6:39/mi), with Sanchez and Grace trading 2nd and 3rd multiple times before the order locked in for good.
• Ashley Dominguez, just 20 years old, closed in 4th with the 2nd-fastest final-stretch split (25.2M to finish), clocking 3:00:54 on a course known for fast times.

Sarah Czuprynski never gave the women's field a moment of doubt. Running out of North Hollywood, she held the top spot from checkpoint one to the finish line, averaging 6:07 per mile across Fresno's flat, point-to-point course. Her fastest split came early — she owned the quickest women's pace from the mile mark through 10K — and she never looked back. Her 2:40:15 stood more than eleven minutes clear of the next finisher.

Behind her, the race for 2nd was a genuine duel. Ramona Sanchez of Sparks, NV entered at 3rd through the first checkpoint, then moved to 2nd and held it through much of the race — only briefly ceding the spot to Maria Grace of Visalia around the 13-mile mark before reclaiming it for good. Sanchez's 2:51:43 at 47 years old is the kind of performance this Boston-qualifier course was built to showcase. Grace, running 6:39/mi for a 2:54:12, held 3rd through every other checkpoint and earned her podium spot cleanly.

The battle for 4th had its own intrigue. Gracielita Bastidas of Fresno — racing on home turf — briefly moved ahead of Ashley Dominguez around the halfway mark, but Dominguez, 20, answered late with the 2nd-fastest women's split over the final mile-plus stretch to come home in 3:00:54. Bastidas finished 5th in 3:03:49. Amie Windsor (6th, 3:09:03) and Kelsey Alves (7th, 3:12:51) rounded out the top seven in a women's field of 160 finishers.