2X Mixed: Cheng 2026 Dominates, Stars & Samba Complete the Field

• Cheng 2026 (Huiyu Cherry Cheng & Jack Cheng) won the 2X Mixed in 23:11:15 at a 17:11/mi average — more than 3 hours 36 minutes ahead of the only other finisher.
• Huiyu Cherry Cheng posted the 4th-fastest women's split on the CA Trail→Pena segment in the field; Jack Cheng added the 15th-fastest men's split on that same stretch.
• Stars & Samba (Odara Maria Thomas & Luke Thomas) crossed in 26:47:40 (19:51/mi avg), with Odara logging the 7th-fastest women's split on the Borrego→CA Trail segment.
• With only 4 finishers in the 2X Mixed, every team that toed the line earned a result on one of ultrarunning's most demanding point-to-point courses.

The 2X Mixed told a two-team story across 81 miles of Salton Sea to Palomar Mountain terrain — 9,000-plus feet of gain, from below sea level to 5,500 feet — and Cheng 2026 (Huiyu Cherry Cheng, 43, and Jack Cheng, 54, both of Pasadena) controlled it wire to wire. Huiyu's gender place climbed from 19th at the opening checkpoint all the way to 8th among women by the finish, while Jack moved from 46th to 27th among men — a steady, coordinated advance through the field that reflected a team running with purpose and consistency.

Their sharpest moment came on the CA Trail→Pena segment, where Huiyu's 4th-fastest women's split and Jack's 15th-fastest men's split showed the pair shifting into another gear at a critical stretch of the course. That combination of patient early movement and a well-timed push on that segment is what separates a team that merely finishes from one that races.

Stars & Samba (Odara Maria Thomas, 39, and Luke Thomas, 46, of San Diego) had a different arc. Odara was particularly strong through the Borrego→CA Trail section — her 7th-fastest women's split on that segment a genuine highlight — but the team's overall pace of 19:51/mi reflected a harder day as the miles mounted. Luke's gender place slipped notably through the middle sections before recovering to 40th among men at the line, and Odara's own tracking showed some mid-race drift before she steadied. Their 26:47:40 finish is a hard-earned result on a course that asks everything of a two-person team.