Masters Men 100: Kivi Outruns the Field on Tahoe's High Ridges

• Josh Kivi wins in 23:24:53 (14:03/mi), crossing first among the Masters Men — posting the 2nd-fastest split on the Bull Wheel 3→Tunnel Creek 3 segment on his way to the title.
• Top three separated by just 12:40 across 100 miles: Dennis Boic 2nd in 23:30:19, Derek Schultz 3rd in 23:37:33 — a tight podium after a full day and night on the trail.
• Derek Schultz ran the fastest Second Half split in the Masters Men field, a key surge that carried him from 9th to 5th in the men's standings by the finish.
• 52 Masters Men finished a course that climbs and descends through elevations ranging up to 9,003 feet — no small feat at thin-air altitude under a cool, calm race day.

Josh Kivi of Reno made the most of home-region familiarity — or at the very least, home-region legs. He started conservatively, sitting 16th in the men's field at the first checkpoint, but steadily worked his way forward through the race's middle sections. By the time he reached the late checkpoints he was in the top three, and he closed it out to finish 2nd overall among the men, winning the Masters Men field in 23:24:53. His 2nd-fastest split on the Bull Wheel 3→Tunnel Creek 3 stretch was a telling move — a strong push through one of the race's later segments when others were fading.

Dennis Boic of Redding made his own charge, running the 3rd-fastest split on the Snow Valley Peak 2→Hobart 2 segment and holding on for 2nd in the Masters Men in 23:30:19 — just 5:26 behind Kivi across a hundred miles of Sierra high country. Derek Schultz, making the trip from Pottstown, PA to race at altitude, ran the fastest Second Half split among the Masters Men and finished 3rd in 23:37:33. The podium gap from first to third was 12:40 — impressively tight for a race this long and this demanding.

Bryan Botma (4th, 25:03:08) and Andrey Vyrvich (5th, 25:43:28) rounded out the top five, each carrying standout segment splits — Botma with the 3rd-fastest First Half, Vyrvich with the 4th-fastest Bull Wheel 2→Diamond Peak 2 — though neither could close the gap to the podium. Further back, Ismael Macias of Lincoln, CA, at 59 years old, was the oldest named finisher in the group, crossing in 29:45:57 to claim 20th among the Masters Men — a finish worth its own quiet nod on a course that doesn't spare anyone.