Nathan Schroeder Wins Beargrease
Posted at: 02/03/2010 8:13 AM
| Updated at: 02/03/2010 11:25 PM
Nathan Schroeder of Chisholm took home the Beargrease crown at 10:04 in Wednesday morning. He completed the 390 mile journey that began on Sunday in just over 40 hours, including rest time."It feels good, I'm glad to bring the trophy back home," said Schroeder at the finish line. "I knew I had a good team, I knew I could do it, it just was a matter of was if my strategy was going to work and it did, and it was a simple strategy, to stay ahead of everybody else and that's what I did I went for it and I won," he said.
Schroeder played spoiler in the 2010 Beargrease, putting a stop to Jason Barron's quest at three consecutive title. Schroeder brings the title back to Minnesota for the first time in four years. "Nathan came out as sort of a wild card, I guess would be the way to call it," said Jason Barron. "He didn't beat me because I had a bad race, he beat me because he had a phenomonal race," Barron added.
Barron began the race on Sunday in Duluth, 10 minutes ahead of Schroeder in actual time. Schroeder started off aggressive, and by the time he left Beaver Bay for Sawbill he was ahead of Barron and never looked back, steadily gaining time. The musher from Chisholm handily beat the defending champion from Montana by one hour and fifty one minutes. "This came kind of as a surprise, I know Nathan is a good driver, but I wasn't, you know, we were all kind of looking at everybody else," said Barron.
The 27th running brought one of the most competitive fields in recent years with five returning title holders. Duluth musher John Stetson believes Schroeder's race to be one of the best Beargrease runs he has ever witnessed. "His dogs always looked good, they were well trained, they were well prepared, they were loping and feeling good and waging their tails everywhere so it was a wonderful thing," said Stetson, who finished second the two previous years, but scratched early in the mid-distance this year.
Schroeder works in a mine on the Iron Range by day and trains his dogs at night. It's his sixth beargrease and first win. "He's a second generation, his dad Vern has been running the Beargrease, I mean it's just as great of a thing for the Iron Range, Duluth and Minnesota as we could hope for," said Stetson. "It feels good, it feels good. I'm proud of my dogs, my family and my race that I just ran," said Schroeder.
For more results visit: http://www.beargrease.com/spectators-follow-the-race.php
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