Rocket City Half Marathon M20-24: Dwyer dominates as Huntsville's own takes the age group

• Major Dwyer won the M20-24 group in 1:31:13 (6:57/mi), finishing more than 23 minutes clear of 2nd place.
• Jonathan Fountain made the biggest move of the race, climbing from 107th to 64th among men on the 10K-to-finish stretch — the 44th-fastest closing split in that segment across the field.
• The podium was tight at the back: Dalton Lee (2nd, 1:54:19) and Michael Roque (3rd, 1:55:10) were separated by just 51 seconds over 13.1 miles.
• A field of 13 spanned nearly 68 minutes from first to last finisher.

Major Dwyer ran away with the M20-24 age group in a manner that left little drama at the front. The 23-year-old Huntsville native posted a 6:57/mi average and crossed in 1:31:13 — a time that moved him from 17th to 13th among men over the second half of the race. His closing split from 10K to the finish was the 12th-fastest of that segment across the entire field, signaling he didn't just hold on — he pushed through.

Behind Dwyer, the real competition was a three-way scrap for the podium. Dalton Lee of Floyds Knobs, Indiana held off Michael Roque of Birmingham by 51 seconds, with Roque edging Jonathan Fountain by another 49. But Fountain was the story of the second half: he entered the 10K mark in 107th place among men and surged to 64th by the finish, posting the 44th-fastest closing split in the field. That kind of late-race charge earned him 4th in the age group, just 71 seconds off the podium.

Austin Probst and Brady Tuten rounded out the top six within a minute of each other (2:03:38 and 2:04:25), while the back half of the field spread across a wide range of paces. Richard Sanchez, the youngest finisher in the group at 20, came home 11th in 2:25:53. Brandon Ogden closed out the M20-24 field in 2:39:30 — a 68-minute gap from Dwyer's winning time that underscores just how varied this age group was on a mild December morning in Huntsville.