B.A.A. 10K Women's 20-24: Binh Dang Dominates in the Heat

• Binh Dang won the women's 20-24 age group in 37:45 (6:05/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the 5K–8K segment.
• Bastion Toledo-Altamirano finished 2nd in 52:02, closing with the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 8K–to-finish stretch.
• Jules Slater took 3rd in 53:20 — just 1:18 behind Toledo-Altamirano — with a solid 7th-fastest women's split on the 5K–8K leg.
• The four finishers spanned a 30-minute range, from Dang's 37:45 to Xinyu Lei's 1:08:01.

Binh Dang made this look like a different race than the one her age-group peers were running. On a brutal 87°F morning with 18 mph winds and thick humidity, she held 6:05 per mile from start to finish and never relinquished her standing among the women — leading wire to wire. The 5K–8K stretch was where she did her sharpest work, posting the fastest women's split on that segment across the entire field.

Behind her, the battle for 2nd and 3rd was closer on paper than it was in practice. Toledo-Altamirano (52:02) and Slater (53:20) ran within 1:18 of each other, but Toledo-Altamirano had the stronger finish — her 3rd-fastest women's closing split on the 8K–to-finish segment suggests she found another gear late, while Slater's better stretch came in the middle miles. Both were running in the low 8:30s per mile through difficult conditions.

Xinyu Lei rounded out the group in 1:08:01, averaging 10:57 per mile. Her 13th-fastest women's split on the closing segment shows she was still competing to the line — a meaningful effort on a day when the heat alone was a formidable opponent.