Nenana teen repeats as Knik 100 champion
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Teenage musher Emily Robinson defended her title in the Knik 100 Bruce Braden Memorial Sled Dog Race Sunday in the Susitna Valley.
The 17-year-old sled dog racer from Nenana has shown remarkable ability in the sport of mushing in Alaska, winning last year’s Knik 100 and 200-mile races.
Robinson is also the three-time defending Junior Iditarod champion, having captured the 150-mile race meant for mushers ages 14 to 17 last February, becoming only the second musher ever to win it three straight years.
Sunday’s victory in the Knik 100 came against a field of more experienced mushers, including former Iditarod champion Ryan Redington.
Robinson won in a total time of 8 hours, 30 minutes, 10 seconds, beating out runner-up Eddie Burke Jr. by just over 10 minutes (8:40:27). Stanley Robinson finished third in a time of 8:42:03.
Isaac Redington led the first day Saturday with the fastest time of 4:20:18 — Robinson was second-fastest at 4:21:55 — but the Nenana teen beat out everyone Sunday with a blazing split of 4:08:15, more than eight minutes faster than anyone else.
The race starts and ends at Knik Lake and takes racers out to Deshka Landing and back, going through the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area.
The longer Knik 200, a qualifying race for the Iditarod and Yukon Quest, is scheduled to start Jan. 4, 2025, and follows the same route as the 100-miler but will run it twice with a six-hour layover required.
Robinson is the daughter of Iditarod veteran Wally Robinson, who came out of a long absence in Alaska’s Last Great Race last spring to finish 11th. Prior to last March’s race, Robinson had last raced the Iditarod in 2001, when he finished 40th.
The Knik 100 race memorializes Bruce Braden, who was killed in a 2009 house fire after years of dedication to the Knik 200 event. The 100-miler was first run in 2014.
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