Rocket City Front Half — F25-29: Santinga leads the way in a deep field

• Sheridan Santinga won the F25-29 group in 1:51:44 (8:31/mi), nearly three minutes clear of runner-up Victoria Hindman's 1:54:29.
• Hannah Hodge made the biggest move of the race in the second half, climbing from 45th to 34th among women on the 10K→Finish segment — the 27th-fastest women's split on that stretch.
• Christine Baughn and Casey Brantner finished 10th and 11th in the group separated by just 10 seconds (2:25:00 vs. 2:25:10), while Susanna Fields and Mandy Christiansen both clocked 2:34:19 — with places 12 and 13 settled by timing finer than the clock showed.
• Sixteen women finished in the F25-29 group, with the field spread across more than an hour from front to back.

Sheridan Santinga, 25, from right here in Huntsville, controlled the F25-29 race from start to finish. Running 8:31 per mile on a warm, humid December morning — 60°F and 85% humidity isn't the gift most marathoners hope for in Alabama in December — she crossed in 1:51:44 and held her position among the women's field through the back half, posting the 18th-fastest women's split on the 10K→Finish segment to close it out cleanly.

Victoria Hindman (1:54:29, 8:44/mi) was steady throughout, sitting 18th among women at the 10K checkpoint and holding exactly that spot to the finish — a disciplined, no-drama run that earned her second in the age group. Ellen Anne Bentley rounded out the podium in 1:58:32, picking up two spots among women in the second half to finish 25th in the women's field. Rachel Brazell, just behind at 1:59:59, was the only top-four finisher to lose ground late, slipping from 29th to 32nd among women.

The most compelling second-half story belonged to Hannah Hodge of Brevard, NC. She was 45th among women at the 10K mark and surged all the way to 34th by the finish — an 11-place climb powered by the 27th-fastest women's split on that closing segment. It wasn't enough to crack the podium, but it was the most dramatic move in the F25-29 field. Behind her, Haley Hernandez, Mackenzie Goff, and Mica Anderson filled out the top eight, while the back of the field saw two genuine photo-finish moments — Baughn and Brantner separated by 10 seconds, and Fields and Christiansen sharing the same displayed time with places split only by the timing chip.