78th AuSable Canoe Marathon: Mecklenburg and Mynar take the title
Travis Mecklenburg and Logan Mynar of Grayling won the 78th running of the AuSable River Canoe Marathon in 14:20:37, holding off a field of 103 boats across 120 miles from Grayling to Oscoda. Weston Willoughby — a stern paddler in the 2025 winning boat — moved to the bow this year and finished second, 8 minutes and 13 seconds back.
The AuSable River Canoe Marathon starts at 9:00 PM on the last Saturday of July, when 2-person teams sprint their canoes down the main street of Grayling and put in for a 120-mile run to Oscoda and Lake Huron. Racers paddle through the night, over dam portages and free-flowing stretches of a Northern Michigan trout stream, past 16 timed checkpoints. This year's field listed 103 boats and 206 paddlers. The winners crossed the finish in just over 14 hours and 20 minutes.
The podium
Travis Mecklenburg and Logan Mynar led at the line in 14:20:37. Mecklenburg is a multi-year veteran of the race; in 2025 he paddled bow in the winning boat with a different stern. This year he paired with Logan Mynar — whose father, Kyle Mynar, was also in the 2026 field, paddling stern in canoe #81 with Chris Issendorf.
Second went to Weston Willoughby and Dane Trudgeon in 14:28:50, 8 minutes and 13 seconds behind. Willoughby was the winning stern in 2025 (with Mecklenburg on the bow); this year he flipped to the bow seat and brought Dane Trudgeon along. It was a comfortable gap but not a runaway — eight minutes over 120 miles is a hard-earned margin, not a rout.
Third was Ryan Zaveral and Matt Meersman of Grayling in 14:41:03, 20 minutes and 26 seconds off the win. Zaveral was among the leaders through the first checkpoint and held a top-three position through most of the night.
| Place | Bib | Bow / Stern | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | Travis Mecklenburg / Logan Mynar | 14:20:37 | — |
| 2 | 99 | Weston Willoughby / Dane Trudgeon | 14:28:50 | +8:13 |
| 3 | 63 | Ryan Zaveral / Matt Meersman | 14:41:03 | +20:26 |
The full top 10
| Place | Bib | Bow / Stern | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | Travis Mecklenburg / Logan Mynar | 14:20:37 |
| 2 | 99 | Weston Willoughby / Dane Trudgeon | 14:28:50 |
| 3 | 63 | Ryan Zaveral / Matt Meersman | 14:41:03 |
| 4 | 55 | Mike Davis / Guillaume Blais | 14:51:51 |
| 5 | 97 | Noah VanderVeen / Carson Burmeister | 14:53:47 |
| 6 | 00 | Patrick Madden / Adam Gelinas | 14:56:09 |
| 7 | 81 | Chris Issendorf / Kyle Mynar | 15:01:04 |
| 8 | 08 | Peter Mead / Renaud Flageole | 15:01:52 |
| 9 | 14 | Dodd Yeager / Bill Torongo | 15:03:31 |
| 10 | 22 | Jackson Tucker / Colin Hunter | 15:08:07 |
The Madden–Gelinas boat (#00) was the fastest Masters entry and still landed sixth overall. In the divisional standings, Rebecca Davis and Mandy Trudgeon (#37) took the Women's title in 15:35:16, and Rich Lauth and Mary Schlimmer-Willoughby (#89) won the Mixed division in 15:12:37.
Stories from the field
A seat swap at the front. The 2025 winning boat effectively split and reformed this year. Mecklenburg kept the bow and won again with a new partner; Willoughby, his former stern, took the bow of his own boat and finished second. The two halves of last year's champion crew went 1–2.
A family thread through the results. The Trudgeon name shows up twice on the 2026 sheet. Dane Trudgeon paddled to second overall with Willoughby, while Mandy Trudgeon won the Women's division alongside Rebecca Davis. The two Trudgeons share a surname; a family connection is plausible but unconfirmed. The same goes for the two Mecklenburgs in the field — winner Travis and 64-year-old Dan Mecklenburg (#30), both of Grayling, share a surname and a hometown; a relation is plausible but unconfirmed.
The oldest paddlers on the water. The marathon rewards endurance over decades, not just over one night, and 2026's entry list ran deep with veterans. The oldest confirmed starters were:
- Lynne Witte, 72 — canoe #54, Cheboygan, MI (with Doug DeLeo, 53)
- Jeff DeFeo, 71 — canoe #47, Montgomery, MA (with Peyton Zigila, 30)
- René Joly, 70 — canoe #70, Lac-à-la-Tortue, QC (with Patrick Armstrong, 48)
- Jerry Killingbeck, 69 — canoe #1
- Kevin Ornatowski, 68 — canoe #31, Tawas City, MI (with Terry Curley, 66)
- Michael Garon, 68 — canoe #36, Washington Twp., MI (with Tim Chapple, 52)
Curley, at 66, made canoe #31 one of the oldest combined boats in the field — a 68-and-66 pairing taking on the full 120 miles.
The entry that didn't start. The official entry list carried an even older name: Bryan Bearss, 88, in canoe #4. His entry was flagged "Withdrawn, Not Racing," so he did not start the 2026 marathon — but an 88-year-old on the roster is worth noting, and a reminder of how long this race stays in paddlers' lives.
An enduring line down the river
The AuSable Marathon has run for 78 years now, and the 2026 results read like the sport itself: a repeat winner in a new boat, a runner-up who used to sit behind him, a Quebec veteran of 70 sharing the water with rookies, and an 88-year-old still on the entry list. The river runs the same 120 miles every year from Grayling to Lake Huron. The paddlers keep coming back to run it.