Kwethluk musher Michael Larson has racked up yet another victory in his second year racing dogs. He won the Kuskokwim 300 (K300)-sponsored 50-miler race on Saturday, March 21 in a little over three and a half hours.
Larson held onto a narrow lead throughout the race, reaching the turnaround point on the Gweek River just ahead of Akiak’s Mike Williams Jr.
Williams Jr. finished in Bethel five minutes after Larson to take second.
Kwethluk kennels dominated Saturday’s race, with Kwethluk mushers Herman Phillip, Jim George, and Lewis Pavila rounding out the top five.
The race is normally billed as the February 50 Doubles, and provides an opportunity for both young and old to pair up on either one or two sleds. This year, the race was postponed to March, and then shifted to a single musher race out of concerns over children being exposed to extreme windchills.
Larson’s win brings Kwethluk’s Alexie Racing Kennel within three points of Williams Racing Kennel in the five-race Delta Championship Series.
Larson is coming off a first-place finish in the Akiak Dash, a second-place finish in the Bogus Creek 150, and a first-place victory in a three-day sprint race recently held by the Bethel Sprint Mushers Club.
The final K300-sponsored race of the season, the two-day Campout Race, is scheduled to take off from the Bethel riverfront on Saturday, March 28.
