Men's Race: Cape Fear Bandits Own Badwater Salton Sea from Mile 14 to the Summit

• Cape Fear Bandits (Andrew Garber) won in 17:34:30 — a 13:01/mi avg over 81 miles from below sea level to Palomar Mountain, finishing nearly 1 hour 43 minutes clear of the field.
• Honey Badger Trifecta (Armendariz, Gruebele & Davis) swept 2nd–4th with a shared 19:17:00, posting the three fastest splits on the 35M→40M segment on their way to the podium.
• Our Place (Cozad & Partyka) charged late, recording the 5th-fastest split on the 50M→68M stretch to climb into 5th overall at 21:01:00.
• Twenty teams across a 26-man men's field finished the 81-mile traverse — from Salton City at 234 feet below sea level to Palomar Mountain at 5,500 feet — with the final listed finisher, Three Blind Mice (Lutz & Munoz), crossing in 25:37:20.

Cape Fear Bandits seized the men's race early and never let go. Andrew Garber moved from 3rd at the opening checkpoint all the way to the front by mile 14, and from there the team was untouchable — holding 1st through every subsequent checkpoint to the finish. Their 13:01/mi average across 81 miles of desert, trail, and mountain — including 8 miles of single-track through Anza-Borrego State Park and over 9,000 feet of total elevation gain — was the defining performance of the day. The fastest split on the 14M→35M segment underlined exactly where that lead was cemented.

The battle for 2nd was a three-way affair settled in team formation. Honey Badger Trifecta — Ramses Armendariz (42), Michael Davis (44), and Martin Gruebele (61) — ran the entire course together and shared the 19:17:00 finish, locking out 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Their sharpest moment came on the 35M→40M segment, where they posted the top three splits in the men's field in that stretch. At 61, Gruebele's presence on a podium trio completing one of the most demanding point-to-point ultras in the Badwater series is a story in itself.

Our Place (Jared Cozad & Darren Partyka) showed what a strong back half can do. Sitting as low as 9th at the 50-mile mark, they unleashed the 5th-fastest split in the men's field from 50M to 68M and rolled into 5th at 21:01:00 — a meaningful move in the final third of a race this long. Behind them, Two Be Determined (David Learned & Joshua Kline) finished 6th and 7th in 22:14:57, while Sand to Summiteers (Jamaal Ryan & Jim Macaluso) and Breaking Bad (Jake Galligani & Johnny Drozd) finished within two minutes of each other — 23:16:30 and 23:18:15 respectively — rounding out a men's field where every team earned its finish the hard way.