Kaiser's Kobuk win caps winter of youngsters

For one season at least, the kids held sway.

A trio of 20-somethings turned the distance racing world on its head like seldom before in a sport typically dominated by racers in their 30s, 40s and even 50s:

• Kaiser's victory followed an eighth-place finish in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and third place in the Kusko 300, earning the young Bethel musher $49,300 in purse winnings.

• Dallas Seavey, 24, of Willow, won the Yukon Quest on his first try and followed up a few weeks later with a fourth-place finish in the Iditarod, taking home nearly $70,000.

• Mike Williams Jr., 26, of Akiak, was second in the Kusko and 13th in the Iditarod, pocketing $32,000.

"Clearly, there's a changing of the guard," noted four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King, who sold Kaiser some dogs when the Denali Park musher retired last year. "They've got all their parts working. I'm just excited to death to see it."

Just before the Kobuk began, King sent Kaiser a Facebook message. "Dude," it said, "you can do this."

By Monday afternoon, Kaiser was still taking it all in while waiting for the race banquet to start in a few hours.

"It's a big step," he said by phone from Kotzebue. "It hasn't really sunk in. Sometimes you get more excited thinking about it ahead of time than when it actually happens."

Kaiser employed his normal strategy of holding back early and surging late to earn the first victory of his career behind nine dogs from his kennel and three borrowed from Williams Jr. He passed early race leader Ken Anderson near Kobuk and pulled away to win.

Anderson, of Fairbanks, finished about an hour back to earn $9,000 while Cindy Barrand of Kotzebue, racing Iditarod champion John Baker's team, took third place and $7,500.

John Schandelmeier of Paxson was fourth, and Chuck Schaeffer of Kotzebue was fifth.

"Well I don't know if it's a changing of the guard yet," Kaiser said. "Some younger mushers are running well, but I see some older mushers still mushing well too."

All three youngsters have deep roots in the sport. Kaiser's father Ron is a Kusko 300 veteran. Seavey is a third-generation musher whose grandfather Dan finished third in the inaugural Iditarod and whose father Mitch won the 2004 Iditarod. Mike Williams Sr. has finished 14 Iditarods.

"I know them all pretty damn well," King said, "and they definitely won the parent lottery when it comes to dog mushing. They are three top-shelf individuals. These guys come from families who knew what it took and paid the price."

Another youngster, 24-year-old Jake Berkowitz of Big Lake, set the tone for the season back in December when he topped four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey and a slew of top racers in the Copper Basin 300.

"He had a bunch of my dogs too," King said of Berkowitz. "If I'm gonna root for somebody, I'd just as soon root for somebody who hasn't beaten me before."

Success may allow the young mushers' passion to take root even deeper.

"It's huge, just huge," Kaiser's mother Janet said via phone from Bethel. "It's one of the ways he can afford to be a dog musher. People don't understand, it's like a farm and the animals need to be fed and taken care of 24/7. When you look at the whole picture, moments like this are few and far between.

"But this is his passion. He's not trying to figure out if it's a passion or not."

And Kaiser isn't so successful yet that he can afford to skip his summer job of running a Kuskokwim River tug boat.

"I definitely have to work this year," Kaiser said. "Sure, there's prize money in dog mushing, but it's not like I'm making any money at it."

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.