Tight finishes and ‘crazy’ speeds distinguish Iditarod’s top 20

Teams have continued pouring into Nome, filling out the upper ranks of the 2017 Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

Champion Mitch Seavey won his third title Tuesday in a record time of eight days, three hours, and 40 minutes, slashing more than seven hours off the previous record.

Dallas Seavey and Nicolas Petit arrived in a tight race for second and third, respectively.

Norwegian Joar Ulsom earned fourth place late Tuesday with his team of 8 dogs.

The fifth place finisher had twice that number.

Jessie Royer did not drop a single team member over the 1,000-mile race and pulled onto Front Street with each of the 16 dogs she drove from the Fairbanks start.

“I think running the (Yukon) Quest beforehand had a lot to do with that; 11 of these finished the Quest with me,” Royer said. “I think that had a lot to do with ‘em. The other five I added to that, 11 are all, like, five- and six-time Iditarod finishers. I had one that just finished his seventh Iditarod with me.”

“All 16 of these dogs are thousand-mile finishers, before I finished this race,” Royer said. “But even then, the good Lord blessed me with a good bunch of dogs and good luck to get ‘em here.”

Wade Marrs and Ray Redington Jr. followed Royer on Wednesday morning.

There was a race out of White Mountain for eighth place.

Pete Kaiser left the checkpoint just two minutes ahead of Aliy Zirkle.

By the time they were speeding into Nome, Zirkle had overtaken him, as she explained just as Nome’s air raid siren heralded Kaiser’s ninth place arrival.

“I didn’t catch him until Topkok, when we couldn’t see very well,” Zirkle said. “I rode his skirts almost all the way up Topkok, and then, he stopped. He was like ‘OK, you can take your turn goin’.’ It’s hard to drive a dog team into a 40-mile-an-hour wind.”

Kaiser’s finish is the best of any team from off-the-road system.

When asked why this year’s was an exceptionally fast race, Kaiser says that’s just where dog mushing is at right now.

“It’s just an evolving sport every year,” Kaiser said. “There’s those guys up front who are pushing the envelope every year, and getting better and better and better at this, and you’re seeing faster dog teams, and they look better than ever. I mean, ninth place in under nine days? It’s crazy.”

To round out the top 10, veteran musher Paul Gebhardt notched his eighth career top 10 finish.

There were a few upsets in the standings, as some mushers faded along the coast and others rallied.

Four-time champion Jeff King struggled to stay within top 20 range and, at one point, worried this year might mark his worst finish ever.

But he roared out of Unalakleet, passing numerous competitors and ultimately arriving 11th under the Burled Arch in the bulky garment he’s deemed the “Arctic mumu.”

“I just don’t think I have the energy to race the whole race like this. … I had a strong fourth quarter,” he said. “I couldn’t have done this without doing what I did earlier. I wouldn’t have been able to keep up this pace without taking it pretty easy at the beginning.”

Rounding out the top 20, King was followed by Ramey Smyth, Michelle Phillips, Ryan Redington, Hans Gatt, Ralph Johannessen and Ken Anderson.

Eighteenth place was a bit of a tie, as partners John Baker and Katherine Keith from Kotzebue opted to cross the finish line together.

The pair was greeted by singers and drummers from St. Lawrence Island.

In 20th position was Linwood Fiedler.

Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes also contributed to this story.

Monica Zappa Scratches in Shaktoolik

As mushers are crossing under the Burled Arch in Nome, another musher has scratched further back on the trail.

Veteran Monica Zappa, of Kasilof, Alaska, scratched at 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning in Shaktoolik.

Zappa chose to scratch due to the best interest of her dogs, according to a release from the the Iditarod Trail Committee. She noted that her team did not wish to continue on the trail.

Nine dogs were in harness at the time of her decision.

— Margaret DeMaioribus, KNOM-Nome

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