Girls U-18: Czeschin Surges from Fourth to First on the Final Climb

• Raegan Czeschin, 16, wins in 1:01:19 (9:52/mi) — the fastest women's split on the Snow King→Finish segment sealed a come-from-behind title.
• Sixteen seconds separated the top three finishers: Czeschin (1:01:19), Zoey Crosby (1:01:35), and Jetta Betts (1:01:38).
• Georgia Bishop, 15, climbed from 5th to 4th with the 3rd-fastest women's closing split, finishing in 1:02:58; Elsa Engeseth, 14, moved from 7th to 5th in 1:04:15.
• 33 girls finished this 10K at elevation ranging up to nearly 8,000 feet — a demanding proving ground at any age.

Zoey Crosby of Revelstoke, BC held the lead among the women heading into the final Snow King→Finish segment, but Raegan Czeschin of Crowley Lake, CA had other plans. Czeschin, running 4th among women at that checkpoint, produced the fastest women's closing split in the entire field — not just in the U-18 race — to cross in 1:01:19 and claim the win. Crosby, who ran the 4th-fastest women's closing split, couldn't hold the gap and finished in 1:01:35, a well-earned 2nd place.

Jetta Betts of Highlands Ranch, CO made the final stretch even more dramatic. Running the 2nd-fastest women's closing split, Betts nearly erased the deficit entirely, finishing in 1:01:38 — just three seconds behind Crosby and 19 behind Czeschin. She'd held 3rd through the race and held 3rd at the line, but the margin she closed was striking. These three 16-year-olds, from three different states (and one Canadian province), delivered a podium separated by less than 20 seconds across a high-altitude mountain 10K.

Behind them, Georgia Bishop (15, Steamboat Springs) and Elsa Engeseth (14, Clark, CO) both moved up in the closing stretch — Bishop's 3rd-fastest women's closing split lifted her to 4th in 1:02:58, while Engeseth's 5th-fastest pushed her to 5th in 1:04:15. Sophia Rodriguez (6th, 1:04:21) and Flora Caputo-Wilkowski (7th, 1:05:15) rounded out a strong top half of the field. With 33 finishers completing a course that climbs through thin Sierra Nevada air above 6,300 feet, every one of these athletes earned their result the hard way.