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See Related File
See related pages:
http://www.adn.com/pf/mushing
http://www.iditarod.com/
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/
Beneath the cold stars of a cold Interior Alaska night, Doug Swingley was steering his dog team toward the ghost town of Iditarod on Wednesday as a bunch of mushers behind pondered how to catch up. "Swingley's in control right now," said Rick Mackey of Nenana, the 1983 Iditarod champ. "He's got 14 dogs, and he's well ahead of us." The fastest musher in Iditarod history, Swingley came into this race confident that he had a strong team. He won a weather-pounded Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race in January against a strong field of Alaskans. About the same time, one of his handlers guided Swingley's second-string team of dogs to a strong finish in a new long-distance race in Minnesota. Swingley said then he felt ready to pull from those two teams the dogs for his best-ever Iditarod team. A top-10 finisher since his rookie race in 1992, Swingley won his lone Iditarod in 1995 in a time of 9 days, 2 hours and 42 minutes. That time has yet to be bettered. Swingley was second in 1996 and 1997, but fell to ninth last year - his worst finish since his rookie year. All indications are that it might simply have stirred in the Montana musher a new desire to win. He pulled into the Ophir checkpoint on Wednesday morning with a lead of nearly 90 minutes over three-time champion Martin Buser from Big Lake. Swingley grabbed his dog food and headed out on the 90-mile run to Iditarod. Buser gave chase, but he is already down to 10 dogs. On the 35-mile run from Takotna to Ophir, it took Buser 2 hours, 16 minutes. Swingley, with 14 in harness, was 17 minutes faster. The only other musher out of Ophir was John Baker of Kotzebue. He still had 13 dogs, but they, too, appeared to be slowing. It took him 2 hours and 28 minutes to go from Takotna to Ophir - 12 minutes slower than Buser. All the mushers started with 16 dogs, but most have dropped injured or tired animals along the way. Veterinarians said most of the dogs have been left in the care of handlers at checkpoints because of shoulder sprains or strains associated with rough trail. One dog was seriously injured in a dog fight early in the race, but there have been no deaths. As Swingley and Buser headed through the spindly spruce and across the windswept tundra that dominate the 90 miles of trail from Ophir to Iditarod, most of the race's other front-runners settled down a checkpoint back in Takotna. They were in the midst of the one, mandatory 24-hour break all mushers are required to take along the 1,100-mile trail from Anchorage to Nome. Headlining the group camped in Takotna were defending Iditarod champ Jeff King from Denali Park, five-time winner Rick Swenson from Two Rivers, and two-time bridesmaid DeeDee Jonrowe from Willow. Jonrowe was second to King last year, just as she was in 1993 when King won the first of his three victories. A consistent top-10 finisher since 1988, Jonrowe has never quite been able to find the luck to put her in the winner's circle in Nome. A tired-looking Jonrowe said Takotna had not been her first choice to take the 24-hour break, but the 12 dogs in her team pretty much demanded it. They were falling off the pace, she said. "I could've gotten these guys to Ophir," Jonrowe said, "but they wouldn't have gotten there too fast." Like a lot of others, she was looking on down the trail wondering where Swingley would finally stop for his rest, and worrying about whether anyone would be able to catch up when he did. "I think his (dogs) are speeding up," Jonrowe said. Swenson said he was impressed by "how strong Swingley's team appears to be. But that doesn't surprise me. This is where we start shaking things out." Swenson was the third musher into Takotna behind Swingley and Buser. He arrived just three minutes ahead of King. After that came Jonrowe and John Barron of Montana Creek. The winner of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Minnesota this year, Barron - a veteran of 19 Iditarods - appears to have his best team ever. He has never cracked the top 10. His best finish was 11th in 1986. Behind Swingley, Buser, Jonrowe, Swenson and Barron lurk a couple teams that all but dropped out of sight for a day, but should be back in the thick of things today. Early leaders Mitch Seavey of Seward and Charlie Boulding of Manley took their 24-hour break in the Kuskokwim River community of McGrath. They were due to resume racing just after midnight Wednesday, and were expected to rejoin the leaders today. Seavey questioned Swingley's decision to press so far into the race before taking the 24-hour stop. "It's not for me," the Seward musher said. "It might be the right strategy. But it's somewhat experimental. They might take too much out of their dogs." The strategy is not, however, untested. It is the same strategy the musher from Lincoln, Mont., employed on the way to victory in 1995. He grabbed the halfway prize of $3,000 that year, and then kept going to be become the first non-Alaskan to win the Iditarod. Whether he can repeat the feat remains to be seen. The field was still in flux on Wednesday night. As some mushers got ready to complete their 24-hour rests, others sat out the middle of theirs, while a few were still planning where to stop. Swenson, King, Jonrowe and Barron will be done with their 24-hour stops in Takotna early this morning. Seavey and Boulding should be through that village by then. Linwood Fiedler of Willow and Dave Sawatzky of Healy - two more who stopped in McGrath - likely will be pulling in. The race's early pace is going faster than expected, said Vern Halter of Willow, who was 10th into Takotna, but expected to fall back today as many racers finished their layovers. "I'm trying to get back into the ball game," said Halter, a top-10 finisher for four years in the mid-1990s. "I think Swingley and DeeDee and Swenson are in pretty good shape, but this thing isn't all sorted out yet." * Associated Press reporter T.A. Badger and Daily News reporter S.J. Komarnitsky contributed to this story
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