Men's 10K: Rueegger Wires the Field in 33:09

• Linus Rueegger won the men's race in 33:09 (5:20/mi), holding 1st place from start to finish and posting the fastest final-segment split among the men.
• Marc-Pascal Ehlen (34:28) and Alec Nguyen (34:34) swapped places over the final 4.62 miles — Nguyen led through the early checkpoint, but Ehlen ran the second-fastest closing split among the men to edge ahead by six seconds at the line.
• Alexey Sergeev improved from 10th in this same race in 2023 (36:23) to 4th this year in 35:40 — a 43-second jump up the leaderboard.
• 15-year-old Miles Sijstermans of Los Altos Hills finished 8th in 36:22 — matching Eric Ramoutar's clock to the second but landing one place behind him.

Linus Rueegger was never threatened. The 24-year-old San Franciscan led the men's race wire to wire, crossing in 33:09 at a 5:20/mi clip — a full 1:19 ahead of second place. He also closed out the final 4.62-mile segment faster than any other man in the field, making his margin of victory as much about finishing strength as early position.

The real drama unfolded just behind him. Alec Nguyen held second through the early checkpoint, but Marc-Pascal Ehlen had other plans. Ehlen posted the second-fastest closing split among the men — faster than Nguyen's — to overtake him and claim 2nd in 34:28. Nguyen held on for 3rd in 34:34, just six seconds back. Alexey Sergeev rounded out the podium chase in 4th at 35:40, a performance worth noting: he ran the same race in 2023 and finished 10th in 36:23, so this year's result represents a clear step forward — four places higher and 43 seconds faster.

The 5th-through-9th cluster was tightly packed, with Guido Stolle (36:05), Brooks Taylor (36:15), James Linabary (36:19), Miles Sijstermans (36:22), and Eric Ramoutar (36:23) all finishing within 18 seconds of each other. Sijstermans, just 15 years old, belongs in that sentence — his 8th-place finish at 5:51/mi in a men's field of 1,947 is a standout result at any age.