Bethel’s local sprint mushing club has hosted four races over the past week, and two familiar names came out on top.
In a one-day, 30-mile race on March 5, Akiak musher Mike Williams Jr. and his team outran George Manutoli of Akiachak by just 3 seconds, claiming first place and a top prize of $3,200 from a $25,000 purse.
Then in a three-day race series on March 7, 8, and 9, Kwethluk’s Raymond Alexie topped the leaderboard, finishing the 32 mile-per-day series in just under seven hours and taking home a $12,000 prize out of a total race purse of $75,000. Akiak’s Williams Jr. came in second in the three-day race, with Schouviller Wassillie Jr. of Akiachak in third.
All of the races followed a tundra trail between Charles Family Lake in Bethel, heading toward Atmautluak and back.
The Bethel Sprint Mushers Club hasn’t announced if they’ll hold other races this season. The Kuskokwim 300 Race Committee, which runs a suite of local races, has one more race yet to be scheduled – the 40-mile Campout Race, where mushers head upriver at whatever pace they choose, camp overnight, and race back to Bethel the following day.
