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Raymond Alexie Wins 2023 Bogus Creek 150

Kwethluk musher Raymond Alexie has won his first Bogus Creek 150 Sled Dog Race. He arrived in Bethel shortly after 7:00 a.m. on Jan. 15 with a team of 10 dogs and was met by a crowd of cheering supporters.

The 19-year-old notched his third win of the season, adding to his victories in the Season Opener and the Holiday Classic. After the initial run upriver, he described a more challenging run back to Bethel.

“The trail was good going up, but coming back it was snowy and there were a lot of snow drifts making it slow coming back,” said Alexie. 

At the start of the four-hour mandatory rest on Jan. 14, Alexie was one minute behind defending champion Pete Kaiser at the Bogus Creek checkpoint. While there, he worked to make sure that his energetic team got a good break for the second half of the race.

“Some of them did not want to rest at the camp; one of them was playing around and we put them in the kennel,” said Alexie. 

After his 1 a.m. departure on Jan. 15, Alexie separated from the field and secured the biggest win of his mushing career. Alexie was the rookie of the year in his 2021 race. In this year’s running, he needed to outlast the race’s two most recent champions.

Bethel’s Kaiser arrived in second place 27 minutes after Alexie at 7:34 a.m. He said that he was impressed with Alexie’s performance.

“He’s been doing really well in earlier races as well as last year; the writing was on the wall. Pretty cool that he pulled it off," said Kaiser. 

2021 champion Richie Diehl arrived in third place at 7:50 a.m.

“It was a heck of a pace to keep up with [Kaiser] and [Alexie], and congratulations to [Alexie]. It was a little too fast for us,” said Diehl. “My dogs ran a good race; it just wasn't fast enough.”

Alexie takes home $8,775 from the race’s $60,000 purse. After winning three races to kick off the 2023 season, Alexie’s next target is the Akiak Dash.

Ben Matheson has worked as a reporter for KYUK in Bethel and KNOM in Nome.
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