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Kaiser And Diehl Finish In Iditarod's Top 10

Pete Kaiser finished fifth in the Iditarod on March 14, 2018.
Courtesy of Nick Hawk.

Norwegian musher Joar Ulsom won the Iditarod at 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Ulsom crossed the finish line in Nome with eight dogs after nine days and 12 hours on the trail. Then came Nicholas Petit and last year's champion, Mitch Seavey. The top two were followed by three teams who have been running close together along the coast of Norton Sound: Ray Redington Jr., and the "Delta Team" of Pete Kaiser and Richie Diehl. Both Yukon-Kuskokwim mushers finished in the Iditarod’s top 10.

Bethel’s Pete Kaiser arrived in Nome with an eight-dog team a little after 1:00 p.m., taking fifth place in the 2018 Iditarod. It took him nine days and 23 hours to get there.

It’s been a successful season for Kaiser. In January, he won his fourth Kuskokwim 300 in a row and earned the title "Four-Pete." This is his eighth Iditarod, and the third time he’s finished the grueling race in fifth place.

Richie Diehl finished sixth in the Iditarod on March 14, 2018. It's his best showing in the race to date.
Credit Courtesy of Nick Hawk.
Richie Diehl finished sixth in the Iditarod on March 14, 2018. It's his best showing in the race to date.

"It was kind of a tough race with different challenges, but it’s good to be here," said Kaiser in an interview with KNOM on Wednesday afternoon. Kaiser found the Iditarod’s conditions challenging this year. The trail was snowy and stormy, and his team has been training on little snow, and mostly ice throughout the winter.

"We weren’t prepared for this at all, and I don’t know if anyone is really used to this," said Kaiser. "But I’m happy with how we did."

Richie Diehl also found the conditions challenging, but that didn’t stop him from completing the race in his fastest time to date. The Aniak musher finished sixth place in his fifth Iditarod. That’s a dramatic improvement over his 24th place finish last year.

Diehl arrived in Nome with an eight-dog team a little before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. He attributed his strong showing to his young but scrappy dog team.

"They outperformed themselves a little more than I expected," he said. "Three of them had never even raced before. They are great, great dogs."

Diehl made it to Nome in 10 days and 19 minutes. He was greeted at the finish line by his family and Angela Klapperich, also known as Miss Alaska.

The Y-K Delta’s Mike Williams Jr. arrived at the Elim checkpoint a little before 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. The Akiak musher is expected to arrive in Nome tomorrow morning.