M30-39: Travis Lavin Dominates in Cool

• Travis Lavin wins in 1:10:31 (7:03/mi), finishing 10:45 clear of 2nd-place Kevin Buffalino (1:21:16, 8:08/mi).
• John Holcombe improves sharply year over year: 3rd in M30-39 in 1:31:44 after finishing the 2025 edition in 1:36:20 — nearly five minutes faster on the same course.
• Anthony Boler edges Shang Tsou for 7th: both clocked 2:01:12, but Boler crossed the line a fraction of a second ahead.
• A 12-man field spanning 1:23:11 from first to last — Travis Lavin's 7:03/mi to Patrick Sutter's 15:22/mi tells the full story of the range on the day.

Travis Lavin made this one look straightforward. The 38-year-old from Reno held the lead among men from start to finish, never relinquishing his position through the race's checkpoints, and backed it up with the fastest split in the field on the Fire Station→HWY 49 segment. At 7:03/mi for 10 miles on a warm 69°F morning in Cool, CA, Lavin's win was commanding — nearly 11 minutes ahead of the runner-up.

Kevin Buffalino (1:21:16) was a steady second throughout, also posting the 3rd-fastest split in the field on Fire Station→HWY 49, while John Holcombe rounded out the podium in 1:31:44. Holcombe's result is the standout improvement story of the group: he ran the same course a year ago in 1:36:20, finishing 5th among men in 2025, and came back to shave nearly five minutes off that mark and climb two spots up the leaderboard.

Further back, the race tightened considerably. Peter Siggard (1:51:37) and Bradley Meyer (1:51:48) were separated by just 11 seconds at 5th and 6th, with Siggard posting the 9th-fastest split in the field on the second half to hold him off. Then came the closest moment of the day: Anthony Boler (2:01:12.83) and Shang Tsou (2:01:12.84) finished in 7th and 8th respectively — the same time to the second, decided by a single hundredth of a second.

Jake Johnson (2:07:15), Zachary Rezin (2:13:03), Pedro Garcia Carrillo (2:31:34), and Patrick Sutter (2:33:42) rounded out the field, with Sutter crossing in 2:33:42 to complete a 12-man group that covered the full spectrum of effort across 10 miles of California trail.