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THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ROWING
Jayhawks get a chance to assess as season starts
STELLA LIANG silang@kansan.com
The spring season for the Kansas rowing team starts this weekend at the Oklahoma Invite. The Jayhawks will compete in duals against the University of Central Oklahoma, Kansas State and host-team Oklahoma.
The layhawks have not competed since Nov. 4. With the snow and the river freezing over, the team has not practiced much on the water after the winter training trip. Instead, they have focused on fitness training.
Coach Rob Catloth said this competition is a preseason for the team, and he will look at the team's fitness level. Catloth said each rower will compete and rows will
be moved from different boats to see what works best.
Each dual will include races in First and Second Varsity Eight, First and Second Varsity Four and First and Second Novice Eight. Throughout the competition, Kansas will also send another Varsity Four team to single races against Minnesota and Tulsa.
that the Jayhawks have started the spring season at this event. Catloth said he wants to see improved times from earlier in the season and for the upper-classmen to lead the team.
This is the fifth year in a row
Looking forward to the rest of the season, junior Amanda Lewis said the team wants to place in the top two at the Big 12 Championship and have a chance to compete at
the NCAA Championship.
Kansas competes against UCO at 9:10 a.m. Saturday, K-State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Oklahoma at 10:20 a.m. Sunday. The Oklahoma Invite also features Minnesota and Tulsa. The teams will compete on the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City.
"The concentration has been there," sophomore Erin Brogan said.
in a Kansas Athletics news release. "We had a really good fall season and we have been focused and just kept in our mind that other teams are out there working hard."
— Edited by Elise Reuter
OUTDOORS
Alaskan sled dog champions scrape to make proper living
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — No one who races sled dogs is going to get filthy rich any time soon, even if they win Alaska's 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
The prize for winning the sport's premier race is only $50,400 and a new 2013 Dodge Ram pickup
truck. That doesn't even cover the annual dog food bill for many competitive mushrers, who keep dozens of dogs in professional kennels geared to breed the fastest runners.
Saturday. The competitive portion of the race started Sunday in Willow 50 miles to the north.
"I've got a hundred sled dogs. Each dog eats well over $1,000 worth of food every year," said defending champion Dallas Seavey, of Willow, who was in 11th place Wednesday. "The $50,000 cash prize covers half my bill for food
"There's people like myself that try to make a living off of racing dogs."
In this March 5, 2013 photo, four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser leaves the Rohn checkpoint in Alaska during the Iditarod Trail Sled.Don Race.
LANCE MACKEY
Sled dog champion
the year, and that when you win the biggest race in the sport."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mushers can pick up a little cash along the way to the finish line in the frontier town of Nome on Alaska's
p. m. and left three minutes later.
Many muschers rely on sponsors, part-time work and prizes from smaller races. Others work in seasonal jobs in tourism, construction and commercial fishing. They skimp on luxuries — one couple even hunts moose to keep food on the table.
It's all to maintain a passion that is being played out this week in the Iditarod, which kicked off with a ceremonial start in Anchorage on
Burmeister, of Nome, was in sixth place Wednesday as he took his mandatory 24-hour rest at the next checkpoint in the village of Takotna. In the lead was four-time champion Lance Mackey, who blew out of Ophir 23 miles past Takotna at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday to begin the 80-mile run to the next checkpoint at the ghost town of Iditarod. Mackey has not yet taken his 24-hour layover.
Before the race, Mackey said he has two major sponsors, one for dog food and another for clothing. The Fairbanks musher gets kibble and clothing from them. But he has to scrape by for the money he needs to maintain his 80-dog kennel and pay his dog handlers.
wind-scoured western coast.
They are rewarded for being the first to reach certain villages dotting the trail — including $3,000 in gold nuggets for being the first to arrive at the halfway checkpoint at the ghost town of Iditarod. Earlier in the race, a $500 air travel credit goes to the first musher to arrive at McGrath. That honor went to veteran musher Aaron Burmeister, who pulled into McGrath at 6:29
To do it right takes him at least $5,000 a month, he said. He hasn't won the Iditarod since 2010, and has seen the number of sponsors drop off. His dogs used to command high prices when he sold them. Now he can't give them away, he said.
Mackey, who also has won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race four times, is doing what he loves, but doesn't expect to ever acquire great wealth
Veteran musher Aliy Zirkle, who placed second in the Iditarod last year, shares adult racing dogs with her husband, Allen Moore,
from it. No one does.
"There's people like myself that try to make a living off of racing dogs," Mackey said. "I've been as successful as anybody, and I'm still as broke as ever."
who won the Yukon Quest in February. Both are running in the Idiarod. Zirkle, who was in seventh place Wednesday, chose the top 16 dogs for her team while Moore is running a second team, more for the training of the dogs than to compete.
Their dogs get robust support from corporate and individual
sponsors. Zirkle and Moore also strive to live debt-free. They built their own home in the interior Alaska community of Two Rivers. To keep food on the table, they hunt for moose each fall and have a garden in the summer.
"We are not broke." Zirkle said. "But we don't live high on the hog."