Nolan wins Jr. Iditarod, rookie close behind

WILLOW — In his fourth and final Junior Iditarod Sled Dog Race, 17-year-old Andrew Nolan claimed a win at last.

And he had to work for it.

With Kevin Harper, the winner of last two races, aged out of the competition, Nolan was especially confident of his ability to take the lead this year, but he hadn’t counted on newcomer Colby Spears.

“Who’s that?” some spectators asked, reading his name on the leaderboard in the Willow Community Center on Sunday.

Nolan, a home-schooled senior, looked tired but careful not to lose his lead on the rookie as he crossed Willow Lake on Sunday afternoon. Kicking mechanically into the finish as wet snow fell lightly around him, Nolan glanced over his shoulder a few times to ensure the freshman at Redington Jr./Sr. High School wouldn’t close the gap.

Three minutes after noon, Nolan’s dogs passed under the banner and into the gauntlet of a couple dozen fans — friends and family. Just then, his competition appeared at the other end of the lake.

After roughly 150 miles, the boys finished barely 3 minutes apart.

“It was really hard,” Nolan said a few minutes after his race. “Colby was really goin’ fast.”

Nolan was last to leave the starting line at Knik Lake on Saturday morning, so there was “a lot of passing at first,” he said. The wet snow caused by the recent warm weather slowed everyone down, he said, but his team — and the 11 others that finished — pulled through.

“Today the dogs just did really good, I was really happy with them,” Nolan said.

Nolan’s team came from veteran Iditarod musher Wade Marrs’ Stump Jumpin’ Kennel, while Spears’ belonged to the more seasoned Ray Redington Jr.

The 14-year-old said the Jr. Iditarod was his first sled dog race ever, and his first overnight trip with a dog team.

He said it was “not bad.”

“I slept next to the wheel dogs,” he said with a smile.

As for the full, 1,000-mile Iditarod, Spears said he’s not sure yet if that’s in his future. Nolan — who qualified for the 2018 Iditarod with his finishes in the Jr. Iditarod, the Copper Basin 300 in January and the new Willow 300 race a couple weeks ago — said he hasn’t decided either.

“We’ll see what happens this summer,” he said.

Results

2017 Junior Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

1) Andrew Nolan, 12:03 p.m.; 2) Colby Spears, 12:06 p.m.; 3) Emma Shawcroft, 12:40 p.m.; 4) Bailey Schaeffer, 12:50 p.m.; 5) Chandler Wappett, 1:35 p.m.; 6) Rachel Cockman, 2:48 p.m.; 7) Kali Herbst, 5:27 p.m.; 8) Ksenia Deits, 5:30 p.m.; 9) Anna Stephan, 6:54 p.m.; 10) Rebecka Stephan, 6:57 p.m.; 11) Katherine Winrich, 7:00 p.m.; 12) Hannah Mahoney, 8:59 p.m.