Masters Male Marathon: Fuentes Surges Late to Take the Crown

• Yoshi Fuentes won the Masters Male field in 4:06:37 (9:25/mi), climbing from 10th to 3rd among the men with a decisive mid-race surge.
• Craig Anderson finished 2nd in 4:18:51 (9:53/mi), more than 12 minutes back, posting the 3rd-fastest men's split on the final Lap 4-to-finish stretch.
• James Yee, 75, completed the marathon in 8:43:40 — a remarkable finish in its own right for the oldest man in the field.

The Masters Male field at the 2025 Jed Smith Ultra Classic Marathon was small but compelling, with the real story written in the middle miles. Yoshi Fuentes started the day buried in 10th among the men, but he didn't stay there long. By Lap 2 he was posting the fastest men's split of that stretch, and he kept the pressure on through Lap 3 with another field-leading split. By the finish he had climbed all the way to 3rd among the men — a relentless, methodical move through the field on a cold, rainy Sacramento morning.

Craig Anderson, 60, ran his own steady race from Visalia, working his way up to 6th among the men by the midpoint before settling in. His 9:53/mi average tells the story of a measured effort, and he closed with the 3rd-fastest men's split from Lap 4 to the finish — a strong final push that secured 2nd in the Masters Male field at 4:18:51, nearly 12 and a half minutes behind Fuentes.

Jason Schmidt, 43, crossed in 3rd at 5:43:56 (13:08/mi), holding a steady 16th place among the men for the bulk of the race before edging up one spot in the closing miles. And then there is James Yee — 75 years old, from Fair Oaks — who finished 4th in 8:43:40. At nearly 20 minutes per mile, every step of that marathon on a wet, windy February day was earned. His presence alone adds something to this field that no finishing time can fully capture.