Molly Huddle won the women's championship by nearly a minute and a half.

It was a special morning in Minneapolis, Minn., at the USATF 10 Mile Championships as Molly Huddle ran one of the fastest times for 10 miles in U.S. history and new American citizen Sam Chelanga won his first U.S. title.

Huddle established a commanding lead early on, clicking off 5:10 miles by herself. Besides winning a national championship, Huddle had another incentive during the race, to not let the men pass her. The women and men competing in the U.S. Championship were fighting for an equalizer bonus of $10,000 if the men’s winner caught the women’s winner before the finish line. Huddle wasn’t going to let that happen.

Her finish time of 51:44 would be the American record for a women’s-only 10 mile race (Deena Kastor ran 51:31 in a mixed race in 2006), however David Monti of Race Results Weekly clarified that the course was not record certified:

@ryanflotrack @MollyHuddle @DeenaKastor @usatf @FloTrack - No record, unfortunately. Point-to-point course with 78% S/F sep & 1.9m/km d/hill

— David Monti (@d9monti) October 4, 2015

Huddle did however smash the previous course record of 53:16 held by Kara Goucher and set a new U.S. championship record.

Women's Top 10:
1. Molly Huddle 51:44
2. Neely Spence 53:03
3. Alexi Pappas 53:10
4. Laura Thweatt 53:14
5. Alisha Williams 53:28
6. Brianne Nelson 53:47
7. Kellyn Taylor 54:37
8. Janet Bawcom 54:45
9. Maddie Van Beek 54:52
10. Kara Goucher 54:54

After recently becoming an American citizen, Chelanga won his first U.S. championship in a sprint to the finish with Tyler Pennel. Chelanga finished in 46:47 and Pennel 46:48.


Sam Chelanga won the race, but women's runner-up Neely Spece broke the tape. Sorry Sam!

Much of the men’s race was led by eventual fifth-place finish Jonathan Grey. Through the halfway point as a large group, the race then dwindled down to five with Grey, Chelanga, Pennel, Dathan Ritzenhein and Jim Spisak working together. Through the long finish straight it looked like Pennel had an edge over Chelanga, but Chelanga found another gear and nipped Pennel at the line. Interestingly enough, women’s runner-up Neely Spence broke Chelanga’s finishing tape.

Men's Top 10:
1. Sam Chelanga 46:47
2. Tyler Pennel 46:48
3. Dathan Ritzenhein 46:53
4. Jim Spisak 46:59
5. Jonathan Grey 47:12
6. Timothy Ritchie 47:19
7. Jacob Riley 47:19
8. Jared Ward 47:29
9. Brian Shrader 47:33
10. Abdi Abdirahman 47:52