The sun was shining brightly on Marsh Lake as close to 300 competitors descended on the cross-country ski trails for the 11th annual loppet, held on Saturday afternoon.

Athletes as young as just three years old participated in the event, and there were several seniors giving it their best shot as well. The loppet was also used as a training event for the Yukon cross-country ski team, and many of the team members posted excellent results with a few taking top spot in their respective categories.

While the majority of participants skied in either the 10- or 20-kilometre races, there were also a shorter-distance events for the kids.

The top male skier in the 20-km event was Nathan Doering, who raced right down to the finish with junior male athlete Ray Sabo for the title.

Doering finished with a time of 1:10:59 while Sabo had a time of 1:11:03.

The top female skier was Sara Nielsen, with a time of 1:20:33.

Race organizer Pat Healy said this year's loppet was once again a huge success.

'Things went absolutely amazing,' she said. 'There were a few highlights, and one of them was the caribou.

'The kids from Skagway saw a caribou on the trails. They were absolutely ecstatic about it.'

Saturday's race also featured a dedication to Peter Milner, who passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Milner was chief of race for the loppet for nine years. Healy's husband Jim and Milner's son Chris went down to the start of the 10 and 20 kilometre races to make the dedication, with Chris also starting the race.

'He said, Go out to Tequila Junction and have a drink for my dad. Or just take some time during the race to think about him.' The people at Tequila Junction said they'd never had so many people stop there just to visit. And there were a few people who just sat on the bench at the lookout and thought about Peter.'

Healy said she'd never seen people in such high spirits as they were at this year's event, and had never received so many thank-you's.

'People just said how much they appreciated the work we've done and how much they enjoy the race.'

As well as the wrap up awards ceremony in the fire hall following the races, there was also a volunteer appreciation event held in the evening. And while the organizer's gave the fire hall a good cleaning before locking up, the race ended on a rather funny note.

'At 5 a.m., all the alarms went off in the fire hall,' laughed Healy. 'It turns out there was a helium balloon up in the ceiling that we missed when we were cleaning up. In the middle of the night, it started coming down and set off the motion censors. So the firemen had to get up at 5 a.m. and check out what was going on.'

Here are the full results from the Marsh Lake Loppet, with the top three finishers listed in each category:

Special Olympics

1. Garry Chaplin, 19:54

Atoms

1. Marcus Deuling, 4:53

2. Trigg Jensen, 5:24

3. Natalie Hynes, 5:25

Pee Wee Boys

1. Trevor Bray, 13:24

2. Caelan McLean, 14:39

3. Logan Frasher, 15:19

Pee Wee Girls

1. Michaele St. Pierre, 14:58

2. Sydney Brown, 15:39

3. Moya Painter, 16:00

Mini-Midget Boys

1. Fabian Brook, 9:26

2. Logan Roots, 10:22

3. Miguel Rodden, 11:37

Mini-Midget Girls

1. Dahria Beatty, 9:25

2. Kaitlyn Surrdyk, 12:50

3. Claire Lindsey, 14:51

Midget Boys

1. Mickey Wilson, 11:41

2. Ethan Moe, 14:45

3. Michael Brown, 17:28

Midget Girls

1. Amanda Jensen, 16:14

2. Kasandra Moe, 17:13

Juvenile Boys

1. Logan Potter, 38:14

2. Knute Johnsgaard, 41:43

3. Jeff Wood, 43:09

Juvenile Girls

1. Janelle Greer, 38:09

2. Emily Nishikawa, 40:21

3. Bryn Knight, 41:12

Junior Boys

1. Sam Lindsey, 38:24

2. Erik Jacobsen, 1:02:29

Junior Girls

1. Heather Enders, 40:39

2. Sarah Murray, 41:14

3. Justine Scheck, 44:39

Junior Men 20 km

1. Raymond Sabo, 1:11:03

2. Daniel Sessford, 1:11:12

3. David Greer, 1:11:29

Junior Women 10 km

1. Melissa Cardoso, 1:33:03

2. Heather Clarke, 1:42:41

Senior Men 10 km

1. Joel Macht, 58:23

2. Travis Adams, 1:01:19

3. Brent Mekelburg, 1;18:55

Senior Men 20 km

1. Nathan Doering, 1:10:59

2. Ron Billingsley, 1:39:07

3. Alastair Smith, 1:43:50

Senior Women 10 km

1. Nathael Bergeron, 56:44

2. Carrie Ariss, 57:43

3. Trish Hirsch, 58:41

Senior Women 20 km

1. Sara Nielsen, 1:20:33

2. Erin Trochim, 1:38:53

3. Rachel Moser, 1:56:05

Masters 1 Men 10 km

1. Jamie McLelland, 58:23

2. Derrick Law, 1:10:56

3. Trevor Justason, 1:18:42

Masters 1 Men 20 km

1. David Gendron, 1:15:24

2. Jonathan Kerr, 1:19:52

3. Gerard Frostad, 1:20:34

Masters 1 Women 10K

1. Diane Gunter, 52:10

2. Natalie Oles, 53:16

3. Christine Smith, 56:18

Masters 1 Women 20 km

1. Eeva Kanene-Loehr, 1:41:33

2. Keltie Hollingdale, 1:52:28

3. Ann Chapman, 1:54:56

Masters 2 Men 10 km

1. Rick Scramstad, 46:34

2. Chris Lane, 53:11

3. John Snider, 57:55

Masters 2 Men 20 km

1. David Brook, 1:12:36

2. Marcus Waterreus, 1:14;16

3. Bill Parry, 1:16:56

Masters 2 Women 10K

1. Helen O'Conner, 55:12

2. Barbara Scheck, 55:29

3. Laurie Jacobsen, 59:05

Masters 2 Women 20 km

1. Tina Sutherland, 1:24:21

2. Jen Adams, 1:27:45

3. Christine Todd, 1:37:11

Masters 3 Men 10 km

1. Sydney Cannings, 1:07:26

2. Phillip Watts, 1:11:56

3. George Dimsdale, 1:18:28

Masters 3 Men 20 km

1. Jim Hawkings, 1:31:25

2. Dermot Flynn, 1:32:18

3. Gord Wood, 1:34:28

Masters 3 Women 10 km

1. Mary Ann Annable-Roots, 1:22:35

2. Jill Pangman, 2:08:11

Masters 3 Women 20 km

1. Lene Nielsen, 1:34:00

2. Duchane Richard, 1:34:18

3. Lois Richard, 1:42:33

Masters 4 Men 10 km

1. Don Graham, 53:14

2. Neils Jacobsen, 1:02:30

3. Peter Steele, 1:07:57

Masters 4 Women ñ� 10 km

1. Nesta Leduc, 1:02:58

2. Joanne Johnson, 1:27:30