Girls 14-and-Under 5K: Debolt Wins in a Sharp 24:42

• Harper Debolt took the top spot in 24:42 — a 7:57/mi pace that stood nearly two minutes clear of second place.
• Adaline McGuire was the closest challenger, finishing in 25:00 — just 18 seconds back for a tight runner-up result.
• Erica Sandlin (age 13) rounded out the podium in 27:06, more than two minutes behind McGuire but well clear of the rest of the field.
• The youngest finisher on the leaderboard: Jhen Mena, age 7, who crossed in 37:48 — a genuine standout just for toeing the line.

Harper Debolt set the tone for the F0-14 group from the start, running a 7:57/mi average to finish in 24:42. That pace held up as the benchmark for the entire 21-finisher field, and her winning margin of 18 seconds over Adaline McGuire made for the sharpest battle of the day at the front. McGuire's 25:00 — an 8:03/mi clip — was a strong run in its own right; she simply had the misfortune of running it on the same morning as Debolt.

Erica Sandlin (13, Huntsville) locked up third place in 27:06, and after her the field spread out considerably. A cluster of four runners — Micaiah Moldenhauer, Carson Jones, Luci Hoki, and Debra Smith — finished between 31:51 and 33:33, all running right around a 10:15–10:48/mi range. That's a four-runner pack separated by less than two minutes across the 4th-through-7th spots.

Perhaps the most impressive story beyond the podium belongs to the younger competitors. Livia Mena (age 10, Gurley) finished 8th in 33:55, while her sister Jhen Mena — just 7 years old — completed the full 5K in 37:48. Baylor Bowen (age 9, Birmingham) also came in under 37 minutes. On a mild December morning in Huntsville, the F0-14 group delivered everything from a brisk sub-25 battle at the front to a heartwarming show of grit from its youngest members.