B.A.A. 10K F25-29: Zeray edges Durgin by two seconds in a scorching finish

• Ftaw Zeray wins in 31:55 (5:08/mi), holding 7th among all women at the line after posting the 6th-fastest women's split on the final 2K push.
• Two seconds separated first and second: Emily Durgin crossed in 31:57 — the 7th-fastest women's closing split — with both athletes running nearly identical races from gun to tape.
• Vicoty Chepngeno ran the 5th-fastest women's split on the middle 5K–8K segment, but faded from 4th among women at the midpoint all the way to 9th at the finish.
• Molly Seidel, one of the most recognizable names in the field, finished 6th in the age group in 33:35 — a full minute behind the winner on an 85°F morning in Boston.

With the temperature already baking at 85°F and humidity nudging 64%, the F25-29 age group still produced one of the sharpest finishes of the day. Ftaw Zeray, 25, led from a position of quiet consistency — sitting 8th among all women through the first two checkpoints before edging up to 7th at the line. Her 31:55 and a 5:08/mi average were enough to hold off a hard-charging Emily Durgin by the narrowest of margins.

Durgin, 29, from Flagstaff, AZ, ran a mirror image of Zeray's race — 9th among women through 8K, then closing with the 7th-fastest women's split to the finish. The two-second gap is the whole story. What makes Durgin's performance even more compelling is the context she brings: she ran 32:37 here at the B.A.A. 10K in 2022 to finish 4th among women. This year she was 40 seconds faster and still came up just short of the top step.

The race's most dramatic arc belonged to Vicoty Chepngeno. Running out of Grand Prairie, TX, she was as high as 4th among women through 5K and backed it up with the 5th-fastest women's split on the 5K–8K stretch — but the heat took its toll and she faded to 9th by the finish, ultimately landing 3rd in the age group in 32:20. Behind her, Annie Frisbie (32:47) and Jessie Cardin (32:49) were separated by just two seconds for 4th and 5th, both closing with top-10 women's splits in the final stretch. In a field of 906, the top five were packed into under a minute.