Men's Race at Badwater Salton Sea: RMORC Dominates from Start to Finish

• RMORC wins in 16:48:00 — Kyle Deerkop (42) and Nick Doelman (47), both of Washington state, led every single checkpoint from Salton City to Palomar Mountain.
• Two Vets surges late — Matt Cantrell and Kenny Krygier (17:15:35) slipped to 5th and 6th at the midrace CA Trail→Pena segment, then roared back with the two fastest men's splits on that leg to lock up 2nd place by the finish.
• Drei Badwater Veteranen climbs from 9th to 5th — Ray Sanchez (59), who crossed this same finish line in 24:36:12 back in 2025, shaved more than seven and a half hours off that time to finish in 17:38:31, posting the 3rd-fastest men's split on the Ranchita→Henshaw leg.
• 43 men finished across a field that spans 234 feet below sea level to 5,500 feet up Palomar Mountain — over 9,000 feet of total gain in 81 miles.

RMORC — Kyle Deerkop and Nick Doelman — made the men's race look almost serene. They held 1st and 2nd at every single checkpoint across all seven tracked segments, never relinquishing a step of their lead. Deerkop posted the fastest men's split on the USN Tower→Borrego leg; Doelman was right behind him with the 2nd-fastest. Their 16:48:00 finish — a 12:27/mi average across 81 miles of desert and mountain — was the class of the men's field by a margin of 27 minutes and 35 seconds over the next team.

That runner-up spot was earned the hard way by Two Vets — Matt Cantrell and Kenny Krygier, both 41–42 and representing Indiana and Delaware respectively. They dipped to 5th and 6th midrace before responding with the two fastest men's splits on the CA Trail→Pena leg to claw back to 3rd and 4th at that checkpoint, and ultimately to 2nd place at the finish in 17:15:35. Their 12:47/mi average tells the story of a team that ran within itself early and had something left when it mattered.

Ray Sanchez of Sacramento, racing as part of the three-man Drei Badwater Veteranen squad, authored the most dramatic trajectory in the top ten. Starting 9th among men, the 59-year-old steadily moved forward — 7th, then 5th — and finished there in 17:38:31, clocking the 3rd-fastest men's split on the Ranchita→Henshaw segment along the way. The context makes it even sharper: Sanchez was here in 2025 and finished in 24:36:12. This year he was done in 17:38:31.

Further back, Team NYARA (Chris Rice & Mike Shaddow) finished 6th in 18:20:09, followed by the three-man Off Course squad (Clay Manning, Benjamin Bittick & Ryan Racca) in 7th at 18:57:42. Brute Squad (Tim Cronk, Peter Noyes & Kevin Goldberg) rounded out the top ten in 19:27:29 — notable for including 63-year-old Tim Cronk of Oro Valley, running 81 miles through the desert and up Palomar at a 14:25/mi clip. The youngest team in the listed field, Bayou Bananas (Carter Frankum, 22, and John Finnigan, 23), finished in 20:42:35, with Double Dragao (Scott Jenkins) crossing in 20:49:59 to close out the individually listed finishers among the 43 men who completed the course.