M25-29 10K: Jewett edges Kitson in a sharp front-end battle

• Isaiah Jewett (Starkville, MS) won the M25-29 group in 39:02 at a 6:17/mi clip — the fastest time in the field of 30.
• Christopher Kitson (Huntsville, AL) pushed him all the way, finishing 2nd in 39:22 — just 20 seconds back.
• Jacob Garcia (Madison, AL) rounded out the podium in 42:20, a full 2:58 behind Kitson.
• Positions 14 and 15 — Joshua Zaiter and Mitch Kestner — finished in an identical displayed time of 57:51, with Zaiter edging Kestner by the narrowest of margins to claim 14th.

Isaiah Jewett made the trip from Starkville worth it, running a composed 6:17/mi to clock 39:02 and take the M25-29 title on a mild December morning in Huntsville. The overcast skies and light 9 mph breeze were about as cooperative as race-day conditions get, and Jewett took full advantage.

Kitson, racing on home turf, gave him everything he could handle. Twenty seconds is a decisive gap at 10K pace — roughly 130 meters at that speed — but Kitson's 39:22 at 6:20/mi was a genuinely strong run in its own right. The real separation in the M25-29 field came after the top two: Garcia's 42:20 left a nearly three-minute chasm between the podium and the rest of the pack, and from 4th place onward the field spread out steadily, with Dominique McNealey (45:59) and Jackson Keith (48:03) filling out the top five.

Down the leaderboard, a cluster of runners between 57 and 59 minutes made for a competitive middle tier. Zaiter and Kestner both crossed in 57:51 — separated only by the timing system's finest measurement — while six more finishers bunched between 59:12 and 59:39, meaning six men in the M25-29 group were separated by just 27 seconds as the hour mark approached.