Younger Harper wins Junior Iditarod

CANTWELL — With a first-place finish in the Junior Iditarod Monday, Wasilla’s Kevin Harper is moving up in the ranks as a seasoned musher.

“The race was awesome, it was a little bit cold (Monday) morning but yeah, everything went well, the trails were nice,” Harper said by phone Monday evening.

Harper finished third in last year’s race behind his older brother, Ben, who will be starting his first full Iditarod this weekend.

Runner-up to the younger Harper this year was Chugiak veteran Jimmy Lanier, followed by returning racer Andrew Nolan, whom Harper has been racing against since last year’s Junior Iditarod.

Harper said he was “a little worried about Jimmy” on day two, though.

“He left eight minutes ahead of me at checkpoint and his dogs looked nice but I didn’t see him until five minutes before the finish line,” Harper said.

But when Lanier crossed the line three minutes after Harper, the winner realized his competitor’s team was just feeling the fatigue.

“What usually happens is dogs just slow down on the second leg,” Harper said. “Mine were looking really nice but it was anybody’s race, really. The top three (mushers) all had really nice teams.”

When Harper left Sunday afternoon, he was “feeling really good,” he said, in part because he was more prepared than he was for the Willow Jr. 100 race, where he finished second, 4 minutes behind Nolan.

“For the Willow Jr. race I had a snowsuit on, which was big and bulky hard to run in,” he said. “For this race I kinda stepped it up and got just better clothes and kinda learned from the last race.”

Harper, like last year’s Red Lantern award winner, Nicole Forto, mentioned in a Frontiersman story last week, noted the addition of hills to the course in his race strategy.

“I had just my mandatory gear and my sled, which was lighter than just about anybody else’s. Because there’s a lot of hills in this race, I thought that would be a lot better on my dogs,” he said.

As for the trail conditions, Harper said they “weren’t as bad as everybody made ’em out to be.”

“You could set a hook anywhere, there was lots of snow, and it was good snow, too,” he said.

Harper said the only really issue he faced was a potentially sick dog, which he put in his sled bag after about 30 miles on Sunday.

“He looks great now though,” Harper said.

The condition of the dogs, of course, can make or break a race.

“There were a couple teams in there that were really good, and it came down to how they ate at the checkpoint,” Harper said. “If the dogs don’t eat, then they’re not gonna have a lot of energy.”

Harper will receive several thousands of dollars in scholarship money as well as a free flight to Nome for the full Iditarod finish.

That’s something he’s especially excited about since this is the first time he’ll be watching his brother and family friend Ray Redington Jr. run the Last Great Race.

The Iditarod ceremonial start will take place in Anchorage March 7 as planned.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.

Results

1. Kevin Harper, 2. Jimmy Lanier, 3. Andrew Nolan, 4. Dakota Schlosser, 5. Jannelle Trowbridge, 6. Marianna Mallory, 7. Ksenia Deits, 8. Rose Capistrant, 9. Nicole Forto, 10. Jordan Seager, 11. Joan Klejka,