Nikiski’s Merissa Osmar arrived in Willow just after noon to win the title.
“The group that finished first was pretty close together,” Junior Iditarod board president Michelle Pearson said. “It made for a really good finish.”
 ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Merissa Osmar leaves the starting chute Saturday at the Junior Iditarod. |
Osmar finished seven minutes ahead of Cantwell’s Anitra Winkler and was 25 minutes faster than Anchor Point’s Rebekah Ruzicka. Guillermo Anton, a student on exchange from Madrid, Spain, finished fifth.
Winkler was actually the first musher to hit the halfway point at Yentna Station. She arrived at the Yentna Station Roadhouse at 5:29 p.m. Saturday, about nine minutes ahead of Osmar. Jeremiah Klejka was riding in third place into Yentna.
Pearson was impressed with this year’s class of mushers and believed their hard work and training paved the way for all 13 mushers to finish in what she called “a great race.”
“This is an incredible group of kids. They were so good to each other and really were a close-knit group,” Pearson said. “It was just a phenomenal bunch of young people and their support of each other and the race showed. Their training and how they care for the dogs and the balance of how they run them really paid off.”
What most impressed her was the support given to the last mushers to finish.
“All the junior mushers ran across the lake to meet the finishers and cheer them on in front a huge crowd,” she said.
With a fresh snowfall on the trail, the conditions were perfect for racing, Pearson said. “We had no complaints about the trail. Everybody seemed to think it was great. Nobody lost the trail or had an accident. We did have one young lady lose her dog team, but she hiked a bit and found them. I think it went fairly smooth.”
Contact Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com.
Junior Iditarod
final standings
1. Merissa Osmar 12:01:25 p.m. Sunday; 2. Anitra Winkler 12:08:55; 3. Rebekah Ruzicka 12:26:47; 4. Jeremiah Klejka 12:42:3; 5.Guillermo Anton 13:14:07; 6. Meredith Mapes 13:44:04; 7. Jeff Holt 14:59:50; 8.Tobin Sworts 15:12:44; 9. Emily Krol 15:21:09; 10. Kaye Berg 15:27:07; 11. Yuta Takagi 20:03:25; 12. Ilsa Schwarzburg 21:13:22; 13. Jonathan Biggerstaff-Myers 23:13:45.
Comments
No comments posted.