Broken Arrow Ascent M20-29: Papillon Takes the Title in 41:46

• Ali Papillon (South Lake Tahoe, CA, age 21) wins the M20-29 race in 41:46 (11:34/mi), holding off Marshall Graybill by just 10 seconds.
• Bodhi Gross rounds out the podium in 43:13, a further 1:17 back — both he and Papillon call South Lake Tahoe home, racing on familiar terrain.
• The top-5 spans only 69 seconds (41:46 to 44:55), with four of five finishers between 12:25 and 12:27/mi pace in places 4–5.
• Quinton Burden (Phoenix, AZ) and Henry Harris (Salida, CO) finished 10th and 11th in 47:46 and 47:48 — two seconds apart after nearly 48 minutes of racing.

Ali Papillon, just 21 years old and racing on home ground in South Lake Tahoe, took the M20-29 win in 41:46 at 11:34/mi — a sharp clip across a course climbing from 6,257 to 8,845 feet, where the thinning air above 8,000 feet can be unforgiving for those not already adapted to it. Papillon, a local, had no such worries about the terrain. On the final KT 22→Finish segment, he posted the 19th-fastest women's-field split — a strong close that helped him hold the lead he'd built.

Marshall Graybill (Boulder, CO, age 27) pushed him every step of the way, crossing in 41:56 at 11:37/mi — just 10 seconds behind. Notably, Graybill ran the KT 22→Finish segment with the 16th-fastest split in the women's field, a tick quicker than Papillon's 19th on that same stretch, meaning Graybill was actually catching up in the closing miles. The gap at the line was slim, but Papillon had built enough of a cushion earlier to hold on.

Bodhi Gross (South Lake Tahoe, CA, age 25) — another local — completed an all-Tahoe top-three with his 43:13 finish at 11:59/mi, 1:27 behind Graybill. Peter Wolter (Hailey, ID) and Tyler Scholl (Kremmling, CO) ran nearly side-by-side in 4th and 5th, separated by just six seconds (44:49 and 44:55), both averaging right around 12:26/mi. Dante Capone of nearby Incline Village, NV, rounded out the top six in 45:24.

With 43 finishers in the M20-29 field and times stretching from 41:46 to well past the hour mark, the race showed its full range. The final listed finisher among the top 20, Matej Bríza of the Czech Republic, crossed in 58:26 — a reminder that this Tahoe skyrace draws competitors from well beyond the Sierra Nevada.