F0-19 Marathon: Carcamo Storms the Back Half to Claim the Title

• Sophia Carcamo, 19, wins in 2:58:11 (6:48/mi), posting the 3rd-fastest women's split from 13.1M to 20M among all women in the race — the stretch where she vaulted from 8th to 3rd among women overall.
• Natalie McCants edges Madeline Owens for 3rd, finishing 3:41:21 to Owens' 3:40:03 — but McCants ran the 33rd-fastest women's 20M-to-finish split in the field, compared to Owens' 45th, making the closing miles a genuine catch-up that nearly flipped the result.
• 18 finishers completed the F0-19 race, ranging from Carcamo's 2:58:11 to Angela Artiaga's 7:28:52 — a span of nearly four and a half hours.
• Meredith Bell (3:53:33) was the only top-5 finisher to lose ground in the women's field over the 13.1M-to-20M stretch, slipping from 141st to 145th among women — a fade that opened the door for Kattelyn Esquivel (3:50:51) to claim 4th.

Sophia Carcamo, 19, from Clayton, CA, did not lead this race from the front — she built it from the inside out. She entered the halfway point sitting 12th among women, a position that looked ordinary. Then she turned on the jets. From 13.1 miles to 20 miles, she ran the 3rd-fastest women's split in the entire field, climbing from 8th to 3rd among women by mile 20. She ultimately settled at 4th among women overall, but within the F0-19 field, the win was never seriously threatened: her 2:58:11 at 6:48/mi stood alone at the top by a margin of nearly 42 minutes.

Behind her, the race for 2nd and 3rd was genuinely compelling. Madeline Owens, 18, from Miami, held the edge at the finish — 3:40:03 to Natalie McCants' 3:41:21 — but McCants, 19, from La Mirada, was the faster woman over the final 10K. McCants' closing split ranked 33rd among women; Owens' ranked 45th. The gap was 1:18, and McCants was closing. One more mile might have told a different story.

Kattelyn Esquivel (3:50:51) and Meredith Bell (3:53:33) rounded out the top five, separated by 2:42. Bell had moved steadily through the women's field for most of the race, but the 13.1M-to-20M stretch cost her — she slipped two spots among women while Esquivel kept climbing. On a warm October morning in Long Beach, 72°F with humidity pressing at 73%, every minute of that final stretch was earned.