7 Valley mushers finish in top 20 at Iditarod

IDITAROD TRAIL — The final four competitors in this year’s race for the Red Lantern were strung out along the Iditarod Trail between Elim and White Mountain Saturday afternoon.

In 51st was Dan Seavey — grandfather to 2012 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog champ Dallas Seavey — led the pack of four contenders. And two generations of the Seavey family have already crossed beneath the burled arch this year. Dan’s son, Mitch Seavey finished in seventh place on Wednesday.

Still riding the runners in 52nd place is rookie Jan Steves. Steves and musher Bob Chlupach appear to be traveling together. The check-in time at Elim for the two was within seconds, 3:15 p.m., March 17. They checked out moments a part Saturday evening headed for Golvin and on to White Mountain, Safety and finally the burled arch on Front Street in Nome.

In addition to Willow’s Dallas Seavey, who was first into Nome, six other Valley mushers finished in the top 20 this year. A total of 17 people from the Mat-Su Valley competed in the 40th running of the Iditarod.

In third place was a perennial contender, Willow’s Ramey Smyth, and in sixth was Ray Redington Jr. of Knik. Rounding out the Valley’s contingent was DeeDee Jonrowe, also of Willow, who finished in 10th place.

Other Valley finishers include Big Lake father and son Rohn and Martin Buser who arrived in Nome in 18th and 19th place respectively.

Gerald Sousa of Talkeetna was 21st and Valley grown Lance Mackey finished 22nd. Cim Smyth was 24th, rookie Anjanette Steer was 26th and Kelley Griffin of Wasilla was 27th.

Local dentist Kelly Maixner finished in 32nd and Karin Hendrickson was 36th.

Valley mushers Justin Savidis finished in 45th, Travis Cooper was 46th and Jaimee Kinzer finished 46th.

Bob Chlupach is the last Valley musher still on the trail. He reached Nome in 52nd place March 19, finishing with a time of 14 days, 11 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

Three Valley competitors also were among the teams that scratched and did not finish the race. Ryan Redington left the race at Takotna March 8. Wade Marrs scratched in Ophir March 8 and Jake Berkowitz was withdrawn from the race March 11 in Unalakleet after severely injuring his hand.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.

Finish order for the 2012 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

R = rookie, S= scratched, W = withdrawn and V = Valley resident

1 Dallas Seavey (V)

2 Aliy Zirkle

3 Ramey Smyth (V)

4 Aaron Burmeister

5 Peter Kaiser

6 Ray Redington Jr. (V)

7 Mitch Seavey

8 Michael Williams Jr.

9 John Baker

10 DeeDee Jonrowe (V)

11 Sigrid Ekran

12 Ken Anderson

13 Brent Sass (R)

14 Sonny Lindner

15 Paul Gebhardt

16 Michelle Phillips

17 Hugh Neff

18 Rohn Buser (V)

19 Martin Buser (V)

20 Gerald Sousa (V)

21 Colleen Robertia

22 Lance Mackey (V)

23 Jodi Bailey

24 Cim Smyth (V)

25 Ed Stielstra

26 Anjanette Steer (V)(R)

27 Kelley Griffin (V)

28 Braxton Peterson (R)

29 Nicolas Petit

30 Rick Swenson

31 Ryne Olson (R)

32 Kelly Maixner (V)

33 Jim Lanier

34 Mike Santos (R)

35 Bruce Linton

36 Karin Hendrickson (V)

37 Trent Herbst

38 Matt Giblin

39 Scott Janssen

40 Curt Perano (R)

41 Art Church Jr.

42 William Pinkham

43 Anna Berington (R)

44 Kristy Berington

45 Justin Savidis (V)

46 Travis Cooper (V)(R)

47 Jaimee Kinzer (V)(R)

48 Matt Failor (R)

49 Hank Debruin (R)

50 Karen Ramstead

51 Dan Seavey

52 Bob Chlupach (V)

53 Jan Steves (R)

Out of the race:

Jake Berkowitz (W)

Jeff King (S)

Gerry Willomitzer (S)

Tom Thurston (S)

Michael Suprenant (S)

Josh Cadzow (R)(S)

Kirk Barnum (S)

Lachlan Clarke (S)

Pat Moon (R)(S)

Zoya DeNure (S)

Wade Marrs (S)

Ryan Redington (S)

Silvia Furtwängler (R)(S)