Masters Women's Half Marathon: Cannizzaro Dominates in Huntsville

• Katie Cannizzaro (Vestavia Hills, AL) won the Masters Women's race in 1:28:55 (6:47/mi), posting the 4th-fastest women's split on the 10K-to-Finish stretch to seal her title.
• Michelle Ziegler (Boone, NC) ran a strong second in 1:30:33 (6:54/mi), finishing 98 seconds back with the 5th-fastest women's closing split — a gap that tells the real story of Cannizzaro's dominance up front.
• A notable late-race position swap: Jennifer Hom (4th→5th, 1:44:29) and Laurel Beversdorf (5th→4th, 1:43:58) traded spots in the closing miles, with Beversdorf running the 13th-fastest closing split to Hom's 17th — a 31-second difference at the line.
• Sheri Nemeth (age 66, Elizabethton, TN) finished 11th in 1:57:17 (8:57/mi) — one of the more quietly impressive performances across 121 Masters Women finishers.

Katie Cannizzaro set the tone early and never let it slip. Holding 3rd among all women from the 10K checkpoint through the finish, she ran a composed 6:47/mi to cross in 1:28:55 — a margin of nearly a minute and a half over second place. That closing split, the 4th-fastest among all women on the 10K-to-Finish leg, confirms this wasn't a front-running hold-on — she was still pressing.

Michelle Ziegler gave chase in 1:30:33, moving from 5th to 4th among women in the back half with the 5th-fastest closing split in the women's field. She ran harder than almost anyone in the closing stretch, but Cannizzaro had simply built too much of a cushion. Melissa Butler (Dayton, OH) rounded out the Masters Women's podium in 1:36:29 (7:22/mi), finishing 7th among all women and posting the 9th-fastest women's closing split — a steady, controlled effort from wire to wire.

Further back, Lynsey Tibbs (Birmingham, AL) crossed 15th in 1:59:31 — a notable contrast to her 2023 finish at this same race, where she came through in 1:45:35. The field behind the top three spread across a wide range of paces, from Beversdorf and Hom trading places in the 7:56–7:58/mi range down to a deep pack of runners in the 8:00–9:30/mi corridor. Kristen Berger (age 58, Gibsonia, PA) and Michelle Greenlee shared the same displayed time of 1:56:21, with Greenlee edging 9th by the timing margin. All 121 Masters Women finishers completed the course on a mild December morning in Huntsville — 59°F and overcast, about as good as Alabama gets in mid-December.