Rocket City 5K — F0-14: Mehaffey runs away from the field

• Teagan Mehaffey, age 12, won the F0-14 group in 27:06 (8:43/mi), finishing 46 seconds clear of runner-up Evelyn Hale.
• Three nine-year-olds — Hale, Lucia Santiago, and Anna Crosson — claimed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place, all finishing within a 2:24 window of each other.
• The youngest finisher, Marley Youngren at age 6, crossed in 46:04 — a remarkable effort on a warm, windy December morning.
• The field of 12 spanned nearly 20 minutes from first to last, with a clear break after 6th place: the top six finished under 33 minutes, the bottom six between 37 and 47.

Teagan Mehaffey set the tone from the start and never let up, running 8:43/mi to win the F0-14 group by 46 seconds. At 12, she was one of the older competitors, but the margin was earned — no one in the field came close to her pace on a day that offered little comfort: 70°F, 76% humidity, and a 17 mph wind made for tough going at any age.

The battle for the podium belonged almost entirely to the nine-year-olds. Evelyn Hale (Athens, GA) crossed in 27:52 to take 2nd, with Lucia Santiago (Newberry, FL) and Anna Crosson (Huntsville, AL) following in 29:37 and 30:16 respectively. Susan Atchison, the oldest in the field at 14, slotted in 5th at 30:36 — just 20 seconds behind Crosson — making the 3rd-through-5th stretch one of the tightest of the day, covered by only 59 seconds.

Further back, Clara Van Der Wel and Katherine Carter ran together through much of the race, finishing 7th and 8th in 37:05 and 37:25. And at the very back of the pack, six-year-old Marley Youngren finished 11th in 46:04 — completing a 5K at an age when most kids are still figuring out how to tie their shoes. That alone deserves a mention.