Masters Men: RMORC Dominates from Start to Finish

• RMORC wins in 16:48:00 — Kyle Deerkop (42) and Nick Doelman (47) of Aberdeen and Elma, WA held the top two men's spots at every single checkpoint across 81 miles.
• Two Vets (Cantrell & Krygier) finish 2nd in 17:15:35 — 27 minutes and 35 seconds back, but owners of the fastest and 2nd-fastest men's splits on the CA Trail→Pena segment.
• Drei Badwater Veteranen climbs from 9th to 5th — Ray Sanchez (59, Sacramento) and his team posted the 3rd-fastest men's split on Ranchita→Henshaw and moved up four places in the men's field; Sanchez also finished 10th overall here in 2025 in 24:36:12, and this year's 17:38:31 represents a dramatic improvement in the same race.
• 34 Masters Men finishers completed the 81-mile traverse from 234 feet below sea level to Palomar Mountain at 5,500 feet — over 9,000 feet of total elevation gain.

RMORC — Kyle Deerkop (42, Aberdeen, WA) and Nick Doelman (47, Elma, WA) — ran the most controlled race in the Masters Men field. They sat 1st and 2nd in the men's standings at every checkpoint from Salton City to the summit, never wavering. Deerkop posted the fastest men's split on the USN Tower→Borrego segment while Doelman was right behind him with the 2nd-fastest on that same stretch. The pair crossed in 16:48:00 at a 12:27/mi average — a pace that held up across the full 81 miles and proved untouchable.

Two Vets — Matt Cantrell (42, Whitestown, IN) and Kenny Krygier (41, Townsend, DE) — were the story of the middle race. They slipped from 3rd and 4th in the men's standings to 5th and 6th through the middle stretch before clawing back to finish 3rd and 4th. Their weapon was the CA Trail→Pena segment, where they ran the fastest and 2nd-fastest men's splits in the field. They finished in 17:15:35 at 12:47/mi — a solid 2nd-place result, 27:35 behind RMORC.

The most dramatic climb of the day belonged to Drei Badwater Veteranen. Ray Sanchez (59, Sacramento) and his team were 9th among men at the first checkpoint, worked steadily forward, and sealed their move with the 3rd-fastest men's split on Ranchita→Henshaw, ultimately finishing 5th in 17:38:31. Sanchez ran this course in 24:36:12 in 2025 — finishing 10th overall that year — making his 2026 effort nearly seven hours faster on the same brutal point-to-point. Behind them, NYARA (Mike Shaddow, 49, and Chris Rice, 52) finished 6th in 18:20:09, and the three-man squad Off Course (Bittick, Racca, and Manning) took 7th in 18:57:42, with Brute Squad (Cronk, Goldberg, and Noyes) rounding out the top eight in 19:27:29 — a field that collectively proved Masters Men have no shortage of grit on the way to Palomar.