FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: John Trent, WSER Media Relations, press@wser.org
HOT DAY, HOT FINISHES: OLSON AND HALL CAPTURE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TITLES AT 52ND WSER
AUBURN, Calif. – On a day where the high temperature on the course reached 99 degrees at one point, men’s champion Caleb Olson and women’s champion Abby Hall posted two of the fastest winning times in race history during the Western 52nd annual Western States Endurance Run, held June 28-29.
Olson, 29, of Draper, Utah, outdueled one of the deepest men’s fields ever assembled at Western States and came very close to establishing a course record in winning in 14 hours and 11 minutes and 25 seconds. Olson was less than two minutes off Jim Walmsley’s 2019 course record of 14:09:28. Chris Myers, 29, of Nederland, Colorado, finished second in 14:17 – the fourth-fastest time in race history. One of the sport’s most legendary and enduring figures, 2011 WSER champion Kilian Jornet, a 37-year-old who lives in Norway but is originally from Spain, finished third in 14:19 – the fifth-fastest time ever, making this year the fastest podium in Western States history.
“It’s pretty unbelievable,” said Olson, who in addition to becoming the first Utah runner to ever win the race was joined at the finish on the Placer High track in Auburn, California, by his wife Morgan and the couple’s seven-week-old newborn, Marshall. “I was not sure how the day would go and I set a really high goal for myself and I thought, ‘It’s probably going to take a course record to win today and if I’m going to go for a course record, sub-14 would be pretty cool.’
“And I held that up until mile 80. I was upon on those (course record) splits. And then I started paying for it. Turns out sub-14 is really fast. Jim’s record is really fast … Eventually, I saw it probably wasn’t going to happen and I’d rather have a nice, enjoyable experience running it in.”
Hall, 34, of Flagstaff, Arizona, capped an incredible comeback story after sustaining a serious knee injury in 2023 to post the fourth-fastest women’s time ever winning in 16:37. Hall only learned she had gained entry into the race in late April. That was when EmKay Sullivan, a Reno, Nevada runner who had finished ahead of Hall in a Golden Ticket race series event earlier in the year, announced that she would use WSER’s pregnancy deferral option. Fuzhao Xiang, 33, of China, finished second in 16:47 (the seventh-fastest time in history) with Canada’s Marianne Hogan, 35, finishing third in 16:50.
“The quote I kept repeating to myself and thinking of this whole week was something like what’s for you, will find you,” Hall said. “I have really felt like I was meant to be here. I pushed through two hard Golden Ticket events and I just felt so fortunate at the way it worked out with the ticket roll down. It’s really surreal.”
Hall either led or was right at the front of the women’s race almost from the very beginning on Saturday. She took the lead for good at Michigan Bluff at mile 55.7 and extended her advantage to 10 minutes at the Foresthill aid station at mile 62. Olson was part of a tightly bunched men’s field that by the El Dorado Creek aid station at mile 52.9 had dwindled to Olson and Myers. Olson began a steady surge that saw his lead grow to seven minutes at the Rucky Chucky river crossing aid station at mile 78.
Saturday’s run was held under sunny skies and on a course with no snow, traveling from the start at Olympic Valley, California to the finish 100.2 miles later at Placer High School in Auburn, California. 285 of the run’s 369 starters finished, including 72-year-old Jan Vleck, a retired family medicine doctor from Olympia, Washington. Vleck, who ran 29:02, became the second-oldest finisher in race history, behind only Nick Bassett, who was 73 when he finished Western States in 2018. Vleck was a part of an historic group of over-70 runners – there were five male entrants in the 70 to 79 age group and one 80-year-old, Bassett – who were entered in 2025, the most over-70 runners in race history. Vleck was the only one of the group to finish. Lesley Dellamonica, 60, of Truckee, California, was the oldest female finisher and won the 60 to 69 women’s age group in 27:36. Western States continued its worldwide surge in popularity, with more than 30 foreign countries represented with an audience of 1.2 million people throughout its 31-hour Live Broadcast. Only 64 of this year’s runners had ever competed in Western States before; 305 were first-time entrants.
ABOUT WESTERN STATES: First held in 1974, the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run has a 369-runner field from throughout the United States and more than 30 countries. Western States is considered one of the world’s preeminent 100-mile trail races. Its mission is to stage a transformational and quality world-class event for its runners, as well as perform trail stewardship and conduct medical research studies for the betterment of the sport. Held on the last full weekend in June starting in Olympic Valley, California, the 100.2-mile event travels through the Sierra high country and the canyons of the American River on the ancestral lands of the Washoe and Nisenan tribes, before finishing at Placer High School in Auburn, California.
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