Fort Ord 10K Boys Under-18: Ukiah Unangst Leads Wire to Wire

• Ukiah Unangst, 15, wins in 52:47 (8:30/mi), climbing from 10th to 7th among the men and posting the 6th-fastest Skyline→Finish split in the men's field.
• Elijah Durden, 12, earns 3rd in 58:10 despite fading on the final stretch — he entered Skyline in 5th among the men but dropped to 16th by the finish.
• Lachlan Gardner, age 10, finishes 4th in 1:01:50 — a remarkable effort from the youngest competitive finisher in the group.
• Six finishers ranged from age 7 to age 15, covering a 1:33:02 spread from first to last.

Ukiah Unangst set the tone from the start and never let up. The 15-year-old from Long Beach crossed in 52:47 at an 8:30/mi clip, moving steadily forward through the men's field as the race progressed — from 10th to 7th — and capping it with the 6th-fastest Skyline→Finish split among the men. That's a strong closer on a course that winds through Fort Ord's trails with 13 mph winds in the air.

Huxley Wilcox, 14, from Pacific Grove made the most dramatic upward move of the group, climbing from 22nd to 14th among the men on the back half and finishing 2nd in the under-18 field in 56:55 (9:10/mi) — more than four minutes back of Unangst, but a clear second. Elijah Durden, just 12 years old out of Los Gatos, had been running in 5th among the men at Skyline but faded to 16th by the finish, settling for 3rd in 58:10. The gap between 2nd and 3rd was only 1:15, making that the tightest battle on the podium.

Lachlan Gardner, a 10-year-old from Carmel Valley, deserves a special mention — finishing 4th in 1:01:50 at age 10 on a 10K trail course is no small thing. Ryder Plotsky, 14, from Santa Cruz came home 5th in 1:37:20. And then there's Adam Riggleman of Seaside — seven years old — who finished this trail 10K in 2:25:49. At age 7, finishing is the whole story.