Top Contenders in the Western States 100 Men’s Field

UltraSignup | June 9, 2026 | Comments: 0

This year’s men’s race in the Western States 100 should be dubbed the Clash of the Titans.

With several of the sport’s all-time competitors in the field—including four-time winner and course record-holder Jim Walmsley, previous winners Kilian Jornet and Adam Peterman, plus past runner-up Hayden Hawks, extremely accomplished first-timers Zach Miller, Francesco Puppi, Vincent Bouillard, and David Sinclair—this year’s race has all the makings for a legendary race.

Throw in several young and talented runners eager to prove themselves, and heat and distance be damned, the race from Olympic Valley, California, to the Placer High School track 100.2 miles away in Auburn should be a real barn burner.

Even without last year’s champion Caleb Olson and runner-up Chris Myers, this year’s men’s field might actually be even stronger than ever. Although only six of last year’s top 10 finishers in the men’s race are coming back this year, more than a dozen other top runners make the men’s field a very compelling group—especially after it was announced on May 1 that Walmsley would be in the field.

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Top Returning Runners in the Men’s Field

The field is headlined by Jim Walmsley, 36, the Western States course record-holder and four-time champion from Flagstaff, Arizona, and Spanish runner Kilian Jornet, 38, of Måndalen, Norway, who, in addition to being last year’s third-place finisher, was also the 2011 champion and 2010 third-place finisher. Walmsley was hoping to run in last year’s Western States, but he wasn’t fully healthy and ready to race. Instead, he went to Chamonix last summer and won the OCC 50K and then took first in the 80K race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain. Speculation about his return to States finally dissipated when it was announced in May that Hoka had given him a special sponsor entry.

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If you don’t know who Jornet is, he’s considered by many to be the G.O.A.T. of trail running, in part because he’s a five-time Hardrock 100 champion and four-time UTMB winner. Jornet will be running the May 17 Zegama-Aizkorri marathon in Spain, a race he’s won a record 11 times.

After Western States, he plans to return to Chamonix, France, to race UTMB on August 28-29. Jornet is one of just four runners to win Western States and UTMB in the same calendar year (he did it in 2011), along with U.S. women Nikki Kimball (2007), Courtney Dauwalter (2023), and Katie Schide (2024). Also, consider that when Jornet won Western States in 2011, most of this year’s top contenders were high school runners, while Hans Troyer was just 11 years old.

The other men’s automatic entries among the top-10 returnees from last year’s race include Jeff Mogavero (32, Missoula, Montana), Daniel Jones (35, Wellington, New Zealand), Ryan Montgomery (32, Hanover, New Hampshire), Hans Troyer (26, Newnan, Georgia), and Hiroki Kai, (31, Japan), all of whom are on the rise and capable of contending for a podium finish. (Seth Ruhling, who was sixth in last year’s race, announced recently that he’s out of this year’s race with a torn labrum.)

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Men’s Golden Ticket Winners

Men’s Hoka Golden Ticket winners include 2022 Western States winner Adam Peterman (30, Missoula, Montana), three-time top-10 finisher Hayden Hawks (35, Cedar City, Utah) and first-time Western States entrant Zach Miller (37, Manitou Springs, Colorado), along with Francesco Puppi (34, Italy), David Sinclair (33, Montpelier, Vermont), Jeshurun Small (27, Golden, Colorado), Will Murray (31, Blairstown, New Jersey), Canyon Woodward (33, Franklin, North Carolina), Anthony Costales (37, Salt Lake City), Tracen Knopp (27, Anchorage, Alaska), Jordan Bramblett (29, Paulden, Arizona), Jacob Banta (31, Mill Valley, California), Max Yanzick (23, New Zealand), Thomas Cardin (33, France), and Vincent Bouillard (32, France).

Along with Jornet, Montgomery, Hawks, and Jones each have three Western States finishes under their belts. Troyer was eight at States last year and also won the JFK 50 in the fall, and then won the Black Canyon 100K in course-record time. Costales was third at Western States in 2023 and second at the Black Canyon 100K in February, Sinclair was second in last summer’s CCC 100K and last fall’s JFK 50-miler.

Peterman won Western States in 2022 and the 80K world championship race but then suffered numerous injuries. He returned to Western States last year and hoped to be competitive, but struggled throughout the day and persevered to finish 49th overall in 23:09. He had his best race in years at April’s Canyons 100K, which he won in commanding fashion. He’s one of many runners who have been training in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon for part of the spring, along with Jones, Hawks, Troyer, and Walmsley, among others.

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Miller, the 2023 UTMB runner-up behind Walmsley, also showed top form at Canyons, finishing second and holding off a fierce effort from Hawks that was reminiscent of their now-famous 2016 battle at The North Face 50. Sinclair and Small have both extended their fitness as they’ve moved up in distance, with Small crushing a strong field in the Gorge Waterfalls 100K by a 15-minute margin and Sinclair winning the Transvulcania 100K in early May. Meanwhile, Puppi won the Canyons 100K and the CCC 100K last year, but was injured and had to drop from the Black Canyon 100K in February before rebounding to win the Chianti 46K in Italy in March.

Murray set a new record at the Javelina Jundred 100-miler in October, Cardin just won the Chianti 120K in Italy, while Bouillard won the 2024 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. Other accomplished runners in the men’s field are Jeff Browning (54, Flagstaff, Arizona), a four-time top-10 Western States finisher who was 18th last year, John Kelly (41, Butler, Tennessee), who is a three-time finisher of the daunting Barkley Marathons, and Justin Grunewald (40, Boulder, Colorado), who finished second at last summer’s Leadville 100.