By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
NEW HAVEN (01-Sep) — On a cool and cloudy morning here, reigning USA Olympic Trials Marathon champion Conner Mantz showed that his training for October’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon is right on track, breaking his own national 20-K record at the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race by seven seconds. Mantz, 28, went through 10-K in 27:50, then came back in the hilly second half of the race in 28:26 to run 56:16. His mark set a new USATF 20-K Championships record and also broke Khalid Khannouchi’s 27 year-old event record of 57:37.
“I think this was the exact type of race I needed in preparation for Chicago,” Mantz told a small group of reporters after the race. “A win always is helpful, but the biggest thing was a really hard effort. You can push in workouts, and push a lot. But today, this was really, really tough.”
Mantz, who won here in 2022 and finished second in 2023, also had to fight a pitched battle for the win today against Isai Rodriguez and Hillary Bor. The trio were part of a six-man lead pack which zipped through the first mile in 4:23, and the second in 4:33. They were joined by Shadrack Kipchirchir, Casey Clinger and Zouhair Talbi. Clinger and Kipchirchir fell back in the fourth mile, and Talbi had to let go in the fifth mile when the first three split 22:25.
“They were moving so quick,” Mantz said of Rodriguez and Bor. “At halfway I think we were at 27:50, or something like that. It was quick. At that point I was like… if I run about 4:45 pace the rest of the way I’ll get the course record. But these guys didn’t slow down. They kept pushing.”
Bor, the race’s defending champion, tried to use his energy wisely. He was content to let Rodriguez and Mantz switch-off at the front.
“If there is someone there to push the pace, then I’ll just sit at the back,” Bor told Race Results Weekly. “When Rodriguez took the pace, I said ‘this is perfect.'”
Rodriguez, the 2023 Pan Am Games 10,000m champion, did most of the leading. In what was his first race of the year, he wanted to keep the pace high and give himself a chance at the podium. He led through 10 miles in 45:31 –a time which was only 16 seconds slower than the American record– and stayed with Mantz and Bor until the final push to the finish line along Temple Street in Downtown New Haven. It was there that Mantz and Bor started to pull away.
“Conner and Hillary started pushing,” Rodriguez recounted. “I was just trying to stay relaxed a bit. I guess I wasn’t there quite yet.”
Rodriguez fell back and finished third in 56:34, a time which is equivalent to a 59:54 half-marathon according to the time-tested Riegel Formula. Bor was right on Mantz’s heels, but only for a few strides. Mantz hit the gas, dropped Bor, and ran to the finish line alone. Bor finished second in a huge personal best of 56:32, despite slowing a bit in the final meters to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. Talbi held on to fourth place, running most of the race alone, in 57:39, and Clinger was fifth in 58:05.
“I pushed and pushed and I looked back and Hillary was gone,” said Mantz of the final kilometer. “I knew at that point I could win. I told myself just keep that sub-4:20 (per mile pace). I got the American record, which was a surprise.”
Galen Rupp, who like Mantz is training for the Chicago Marathon, finished 19th in 1:00:22.
The women’s race saw a first-time winner who, like Mantz, is coached by Ed Eyestone of Brigham Young University. Aubrey Frentheway, who finished second at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth back in June in 2:27:14, broke away from her rivals in the middle of the tenth mile and went on to win in 1:05:36. It was her first national title.
“Honestly, it’s like my first big pro win and I’m kind of emotional,” Frentheway told Race Results Weekly. “It was good. Before the race I had no idea how I’d feel. I’ve been dealing with a hamstring issue for, like, two months. I was kind of nervous and I felt like at mile-nine for some reason I felt good, so I’m going to go.”
Biruktayit Degefa, a three-time Chevron Houston Marathon champion, took second in her first race as an American citizen. The Ethiopian-born runner threw up immediately after finishing, but after a moment to collect herself she was clearly pleased with her time of 1:05:42. She said that she was injured most of the last two years.
“The race was tough, very tough,” Degefa said. “But after, finally, second place I am happy.”
Ednah Kurgat, the 2023 USATF Cross Country Championships winner, took third in 1:05:46 followed by 2:27 marathoner Maggie Montoya (1:05:57). Reigning USATF Cross Country champion Carrie Ellwood finished fifth in (1:06:08).
Both Mantz and Frentheway won $9000 in prize money, and Mantz picked up an additional $1000 for setting an event record. Overall, the race paid out a $38,000 prize money purse.
The Faxon Law New Haven 20-K is part of the USATF Running Circuit. Only one event remains on the circuit for this year, the national marathon championships to be hosted by the California International Marathon in Sacramento, Calif., on December 7. The overall circuit champions will receive $15,000 in addition to the prize money they earned at individual races.
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