M20-29: Elius Graff dominates Broken Arrow's 18K with a blistering mountain run

• Elius Graff, 1:36:46 (8:39/mi) — wins M20-29 by 8 minutes and 32 seconds over Andrew Huang's 1:45:18, the largest margin on the podium.
• Graff's Snow King→KT 22 split was the fastest of any man in the field on that segment — a decisive surge that defined the race.
• Andrew Huang climbed from 7th among men to 6th by the finish, posting the 6th-fastest Siberia→Finish split among the men — a strong close.
• Ruben Coronel ran the 9th-fastest Siberia→Finish split among the men despite slipping from 8th to 11th among men overall, finishing 4th in M20-29 in 1:51:26.

Elius Graff, 26, from San Jose, put on a clinic at altitude. Opening as 6th among men and quickly climbing to 2nd, Graff used the Snow King→KT 22 segment — where he posted the fastest men's split — to establish a lead he never surrendered. By the finish he had settled into 4th among men overall, but within M20-29 the story was never in doubt: his 1:36:46 at an 8:39/mi average on a course ranging up to 8,046 feet is a performance the rest of the field couldn't touch.

Behind him, Andrew Huang (1:45:18, 9:25/mi) was the steadiest mover in the group. Holding 7th among men through nearly every checkpoint, he finally ticked up to 6th on the Siberia→Finish stretch, where his 6th-fastest closing split among the men showed genuine late-race strength. Sam O'Melveny (1:49:37, 9:48/mi) was equally consistent, sitting 9th among men at every single checkpoint before finishing 3rd in M20-29 — a portrait of even-effort racing on a demanding course.

The mid-pack battle had its own drama. Coronel (1:51:26) actually lost ground through the middle — dropping from 8th to 13th among men — before clawing back to 11th at the finish, good for 4th in M20-29. Peter Fitchen (1:58:15) and John Park (1:59:19) rounded out the top six, separated by just over a minute, with Carl Houweling (2:00:54) close behind in 7th. At the back of the listed field, Reed Loper (2:09:39) and Cade Beadell (2:16:36), both just 20 years old, showed that the youngest runners in this group have plenty of runway ahead on these Sierra Nevada trails.