Girls U-17: Kendall Bawden Dominates the Napa 5K

• Kendall Bawden, 14, wins in 23:54 — a 7:42/mi pace that put 1:41 of clear air between her and the rest of the field.
• Celina Deng, 11, finishes 2nd in 25:35 — remarkable composure from one of the youngest in the top five.
• Places 11–14 compressed into just 8 seconds — Alina Hsieh (37:16), Ann Brokaw (37:18), Sajni Gaitonde (37:19), and Arya Wang (37:24) ran the tightest cluster of the morning.
• Josie Coppersmith, age 7, finishes 10th in 35:30 — and her 6-year-old sister Rosalind crossed 15th in 39:40, making the Coppersmiths a family story all their own.

Kendall Bawden set the tone from the gun. Her 23:54 finish — 7:42 per mile on a cool, breezy Napa morning — was the kind of run that makes the rest of the field feel like it's competing for a different race. Second place Celina Deng, just 11 years old, answered with a composed 25:35 (8:14/mi), and the gap between those two — 1:41 — was the widest margin anywhere in the top ten. Eris Mizuno rounded out the podium in 27:42, with Emma Sosa Albrecht just 14 seconds behind her in 27:56, making the race for 3rd the closest battle at the front.

Roxy Underwood held 5th in 29:50 before the field spread out through the middle pack. Then came one of the most dramatic clusters of the day: Alli Street (32:31) and Sophie Yu (32:32) were separated by a single second in 6th and 7th, with Allison Haughey close behind in 8th at 32:52. Twenty seconds covered three finishers — a genuine battle that the clock captured perfectly.

Further back, the race produced its own subplot in the 37-minute range, where Alina Hsieh (11th, 37:16), Ann Brokaw (12th, 37:18), Sajni Gaitonde (13th, 37:19), and Arya Wang (14th, 37:24) finished within 8 seconds of each other across four places. And don't overlook the Coppersmith sisters from Pleasant Hill — Josie, age 7, ran to 10th in 35:30, while little sister Rosalind, just 6 years old, crossed in 39:40 for 15th. In a field of 25 young runners braving 42-degree temperatures, that's the kind of detail that makes a 5K feel like something more.