Sports Briefs

Semmens qualifies for Arctic Winter Games

Despite finishing 21st on the Besh Cup Race Series Junior 1/Older Junior points list, Kenai Central's Trent Semmens still qualified for the Arctic Winter Games, which will be held from March 9-15 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, Canada.

The top 15 participants on the boys J1/OJ points list qualify for a spot on the Alaska Junior National Team, while the next four earn a spot in the Arctic Winter Games.

Semmens who finished Sunday's final 10-kilometer freestyle race in 24th place (27 minutes, 35.80 seconds) nabbed a spot on the winter games' team because two of the top 15 finishers are college students and therefore compete in a different division at Junior Nationals.

Iron Dog teams reach Kaltag

As of 9 p.m. Monday, Wasilla's Nick Olstad and Todd Minnick were the fastest team to reach the Kaltag checkpoint, where they, along with four other teams in the 2008 Tesoro Iron Dog snowmachine race, declared their layover.

Olstad and Minnick reached Kaltag in 15 hours, 25 minutes, 10 minutes faster than the team of Tyson Johnson and Tyler Aklestad. The duo of Matthew Spernak and Chris Olds arrived in Kaltag in 18:17, Stephen Spence and Wayne Wold made it to their layover in 19:05 and Louie Carlo and Tom Kriska, both of Fairbanks, needed 22:05 to reach their layover in Kaltag.

Defending champions Scott Davis and Todd Palin, of Soldotna and Wasilla, respectively, needed just 15:13 to arrive in Galena, where they declared their layover. Just behind them was the tandem of Seward's Dick Jimmer and Soldotna's Dusty VanMeter, who made it to their layover in Galena in 16:22.