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Bethel’s Jessica Klejka became the 22nd musher to cross the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race finish line in Nome on Thursday, March 19.

At a few minutes before 1 p.m. on March 18, Bethel’s Pete Kaiser crossed the finish line in Nome with nine dogs in harness. His was the 14th team to complete the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race this year.

Thomas Waerner left White Mountain at 1:35 p.m. on March 17, and is well on his way down the trail to Nome. He has all but won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race because his nearest challenger, Mitch Seavey, mushed into the White Mountain checkpoint at 10:49 a.m. Seavey has a mandatory eight-hour layover, and will have to wait until 6:49 p.m. before he can head out on the 77 miles of trail leading to the finish line in Nome. 

Thomas Waerner, the Norwegian musher leading the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, will have to wait till 2 p.m. on March 17 to head back out on the trail to Nome. He arrived at the White Mountain checkpoint at 5:30 a.m. with a huge lead to start his mandated eight-hour rest. Mitch Seavey, who has worked his way past 12 teams to lead the chase pack, drove into White Mountain at a bit before 11 a.m. That’s five hours after Waerner's arrival. Jessie Royer is just a few miles behind Seavey.

He’s not in Nome yet, but Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner had a huge lead when he arrived in White mountain at 6 a.m. on March 17. He pulled into the checkpoint with a team of 12 dogs to begin the last mandatory eight-hour rest in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Warner started his run around Norton Sound in Unalakleet with a five-hour lead which has not shrunk. He left Elim five hours ahead of Mitch Seavey, who is leading the chase pack. Waerner can get back on the trail this afternoon at 2 p.m, and is expected to cross the finish line in Nome on the morning of Wednesday, March 18.

The Kuskokwim 300 has become the latest Bethel organization to respond to the coronavirus pandemic by changing the way it operates. The organization is shutting down its pull-tab booth at the Alaska Commercial Company store until March 31. The booth attracts a lot of people, and the K300 board has decided to close it temporarily in the interest of keeping the community healthy.

Richie Diehl has gone home to Aniak. Diehl scratched from the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race on March 16 when his dogs refused to get back on the trail in Unalakleet. His team, which was running near the front of the pack during the beginning of the race, started to balk after they took an eight-hour rest on the Yukon River. Diehl managed to get the dogs going by taking it slow and giving them more rest. But by the time the team got to the coast, both he and the dogs had had enough.

Something is wrong with Richie Diehl’s sled dogs. He checked into Unalakleet at 1:30 a.m. on March 16, a half hour after Bethel’s Pete Kaiser. Kaiser took a five-and-a-half-hour rest, and left the checkpoint at 7 a.m. to head around Norton Sound and across the ice to Koyuk. By noon, he was close to Shaktoolik. Diehl stayed put. His team appears hesitant to get back on the trail. 

As of Monday morning, March 16, in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Thomas Waerner is out on the Norton Sound ice approaching Koyuk. About 15 miles behind him is Brent Sass, followed by Jessie Royer, Aaron Burmeister, and others. There are more than a dozen teams out of Unalakleet this morning, including Bethel's Pete Kaiser, making their way along the coastline to the next official checkpoint in Koyuk.