Boys U-20: Ryder Jay Surges Late to Claim the Title

• Ryder Jay (Littleton, CO) wins in 48:32 (7:49/mi avg), posting the fastest Snow King→Finish split among the U-20 boys to overtake the lead in the closing stretch.
• Tyson Gubler (Riverton, UT) finishes just 13 seconds back in 2nd at 48:45 — the two were separated by the narrowest margin in the field.
• Enzo Giampaolo (Lewiston, ME) rounds out the podium in 52:13, a full 3:28 behind Gubler in 3rd.
• The back half of the field spans more than 25 minutes — from Lincoln Gage's 6th-place 1:02:18 to Bryan Garcia's 9th-place 1:18:04.

---

Ryder Jay didn't have the lead coming into the final segment. Running up in the men's field, he sat in 2nd place through the bulk of the race — but on the Snow King→Finish stretch, he found another gear, posting the fastest closing split among all nine U-20 boys. That surge was enough to move him from 2nd to 1st and seal the win in 48:32 at 7:49/mi — no small feat on a course ranging up to nearly 8,000 feet above sea level.

Tyson Gubler made him earn it. The fellow 18-year-old from Riverton, UT ran the second-fastest closing split in the U-20 field and finished just 13 seconds behind Jay at 48:45 (7:51/mi). That's a genuine catch-up story told in reverse: Jay was the one running faster when it counted, widening a sliver of daylight that Gubler — despite a strong finish of his own — couldn't close. Thirteen seconds over a mountain 10K is a tight margin, and Gubler's 2nd-place finish reflects a race well run.

Enzo Giampaolo of Lewiston, ME held 3rd at 52:13, though the Snow King→Finish segment was a tougher stretch for him — he slipped from 4th to 5th in the men's field on that closing run before finishing 3rd among the U-20 boys. Behind him, Haines Gauzens (Scottsdale, AZ) was a notable mover, climbing from 10th to 8th in the men's field over the final segment to claim 5th in the U-20 race at 59:46. Bryan Garcia (Cloverdale, CA) brought it home 9th in 1:18:04 — completing a field that showed real depth at the front and a wide spread across nine finishers.