DAWSON CITY – Crispin Studer chalked up his fifth Percy DeWolfe victory on Good Friday afternoon with an elapsed run time of 21 hours and 39 minutes.

It was not his fastest time for the return trip from Dawson to Eagle, Alaska. That came in 2014 with 18:18, but it was just over half an hour faster than second-place musher Hans Gatt.

Studer said it’s always a pleasure for him to race with Gatt, who is a superlative musher. It pushes him to do better just to be in a race with him, he said.

He thought the trail was a bit tricky, due to the conditions on the Yukon River.

Studer said it was a good run and that he has no idea how he managed to hit a log that was sticking out of the ice. His prize money is $3,000.

In his turn at the microphone, Gatt, who won this race in both 2009 and 2010, opined that he might just have to start training for this race.

His teams for the Iditarod (the Anchorage-to-Nome race) just weren’t cutting it on this mid-distance ran, Gatt said.

Still, he was perhaps improving.

When Gatt last faced Studer in 2013, he came in third. In his eight races here, he has always been in the top five. His prize is $2,000.

Third place went to Alexander Serjukov, the rookie in this race, who pulled in at 22:24, just 22 minutes behind Gatt. His prize is $1,500.

Used to the race scene in Europe, Serjukov commented that the board here looks like a big family, which is vastly different from his experience.

“First place is always the dogs here, which is nice to see,” he said. “It’s different in Europe.”

Fourth place was won by Dawson’s own Kyla Boivin, who remembered taking three days to finish this race when she first ran it in 1999 at the age of 17.

Since then, she has won a red lantern for finishing last (2000), and has come no higher than 11th place (2009), though she took third in the Junior Percy in 2011. Her time was 24:51.

In fifth place was Laura Neese, while sixth went to Gaetan Pierrard, and seventh to mail carrier Victoria Hardwick. Those were the money winners.

After that came Alexandra Rochet, Jen Peeks, and red lantern winner Sam Christman.

Veteran Percy racer Gerry Willomitzer, who has won this race twice in the past, most recently in 2012, was forced to scratch when several of his dogs became ill.

For the correctness of his decision to place his dogs first, he was presented with the Humane Society’s Humanitarian Award.

The Junior Percy results saw Jason Biasetti taking first place in 23:50. He was followed by Matt Rydhoim (23:56), Matt McHugh, and Brian Wilmshurst, with most of the rest coming in within about an hour.

The outlier was Krys March, who took the red lantern for her 32:50 finish time.

She seemed to be more pleased with the caribou antler that one of her dogs picked up along the way.

The banquet, catered by Cheechakos Bake Shop, was held in the YOOP Hall.

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