Sports

Bethel mushers made bookends of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. 

When rookie Victoria Hardwick crossed the finish line in Nome on Monday at 1:51 p.m. she became the last musher to finish the race, earning her the Red Lantern Award, which will be awarded at a special Red Lantern Banquet tonight in Nome.

With Pete Kaiser winning the race last week, today’s finish means that Bethel has a team at both ends of the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

There seems to be a wait-off between the two teams in the rear of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. This afternoon, Bethel rookie Victoria Hardwick was eligible to leave White Mountain over 10 hours after the previous musher to leave the checkpoint; there are no teams remaining behind her. She finally left at 1:46 p.m. on Sunday.

Jessica Klejka mushed her team of 11 dogs across the finish line in Nome at 10:12 p.m. on Friday. Her rookie run in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is the fulfillment of dreams that started when she was a young girl in Bethel learning to run dogs on local trails. 

There are four teams on the Iditarod trail between White Mountain and Nome today, and Bethel rookie Jessica Klejka is among them. The mushers are each about five miles apart, and Klejka is the last in the group. They were headed towards Safety late this afternoon and should be coming into Nome early tonight. 

Jessica Klejka, racing in the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, will be on her way to Nome from White Mountain at 10:40 a.m. She got to the checkpoint for her 8-hour rest at 2:40 a.m. on Friday, March 15.

Victoria Hardwick made it through the Norton Sound shore ice yesterday, arriving in Koyuk this morning at 6:20 a.m. 

There are currently 26 mushers who have made it to Nome.

About half the Iditarod mushers in this year’s race have made it to Nome, including Bethel’s finest musher, Pete Kaiser, who earned his first Iditarod Championship on Wednesday.

After Aniak’s Richie Diehl drove his dogs across the finish line last night to take 11th place, there remain only two Y-K Delta mushers still out on the trail; both are rookies.

Bethel Rookie Victoria Hardwick could make Iditarod history this year. If she gets the red lantern, this will be the first year Bethel mushers have come in first and last in the race.

By Thursday morning there were a total of 14 Iditarod mushers in Nome. The big news is that for the first time in the race’s history, there are three women in the top 10: Jessie Royer, Aliy Zirkle, and Paige Drobny. All three also finished the race with more dogs in harness than any of the top 10 men.