NYC Half M20-24: Hoskins dominates while the field fights it out behind

• Charlie Hoskins won the M20-24 group in 1:18:10 (5:58/mi), holding 2nd among women throughout and posting the fastest women's split on the 15K–20K segment.
• Kyle Burgess finished 2nd in the age group in 3:49:02 — more than 2:30 behind Hoskins, running a 17:28/mi average.
• Aspen Narain (3rd, 4:18:07) and Lio Connelly-Mendez (4th, 4:37:41) both gained ground in the women's field over the final 20K–finish stretch, posting the 76th- and 77th-fastest women's splits on that closing segment, respectively.
• The gap from 1st to 4th in the M20-24 group spanned 3:19:31 — a wide range of efforts across just four finishers.

On a crisp 40°F March morning, with clear skies and barely a breath of wind off Prospect Park, the M20-24 age group belonged to Charlie Hoskins from the gun. Running at a 5:58/mi clip, Hoskins was no mere age-group leader — he held 2nd among all women in the broader field from start to finish, never yielding that position through any checkpoint. The 15K–20K segment was his sharpest: he posted the fastest women's split on that stretch, a sign that while others were tightening up in the back half of the course, Hoskins was still pressing.

Behind him, the picture was a different race entirely. Kyle Burgess crossed in 3:49:02 at a 17:28/mi average, securing 2nd in the age group but running in a different universe from the leader. Burgess moved steadily through the women's field — from 73rd at the first checkpoint to 79th at the finish — a slight fade in relative standing over the closing miles.

Aspen Narain and Lio Connelly-Mendez both told a more encouraging late-race story. Narain (4th at 20K among women, 87th at the finish) and Connelly-Mendez (97th at 20K, 94th at the finish) each moved up in the women's field over that final stretch, posting the 76th- and 77th-fastest women's splits on the 20K-to-finish segment. Narain finished 3rd in the age group in 4:18:07; Connelly-Mendez rounded out the four-person group in 4:37:41, 19 minutes and 34 seconds back.