N20-24 Women: Wohlers Wins in the Heat, Cajes Closes Strong

• Carson Wohlers (age 21, Spencerport NY) took 1st in N20-24 in 1:53:59 (8:42/mi), holding 3rd among women throughout the entire race.
• Tisha Cajes (age 23, Virginia Beach VA) finished 2nd in N20-24 in 2:19:29 (10:38/mi), with a gap of 25:30 separating the two finishers.
• Wohlers posted the 2nd-fastest women's split from 20K to the finish — her strongest segment came when it mattered most.
• Cajes answered with the 2nd-fastest women's split from 15K to 20K, moving from 5th to 4th among women in that stretch.

With just two finishers in the N20-24 age group, this was a race of contrasting styles played out in tough conditions — 71°F, 73% humidity, and a 17 mph wind off the Virginia Beach coast. Neither athlete had it easy.

Wohlers was the steadier of the two from the gun. She locked into 3rd among women at the first checkpoint and never moved — holding that position through 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K, and the finish line. That kind of positional consistency under warm, windy conditions speaks to disciplined pacing, and her 8:42/mi average backed it up. The 2nd-fastest women's split from 20K to the finish suggests she still had legs when others were fading — a strong close to seal the N20-24 title.

Cajes had a more eventful race. She slipped from 4th to 5th among women somewhere before 15K, but came roaring back through that 15K-to-20K segment with the 2nd-fastest women's split in the field on that stretch, reclaiming 4th place and eventually settling into 3rd among women by the finish. The local Virginia Beach runner clearly knows how to handle the home conditions. The 25:30 gap to Wohlers was wide, but Cajes' mid-race surge was one of the more eye-catching moves in the women's field on the day.