Richie Diehl and Matt Failor arrived into Nome under the burled arch this morning within minutes of each other. Aniak’s Richie arrived at 7:35am with his team of 10, followed closely by Matt Failor and his 11 dogs at 7:42am. A new generation of mushers is coming up in the Iditarod ranks, and these two are among those to watch in the coming years.
Richie, proud of his team and his place in just his second Iditarod race, says that mushing is coming back as a trend in Southwest Alaska with his team, Pete Kaiser, and Michael Williams, Jr. He’s excited to see it grow more in popularity.
Matt Failor started running the Iditarod a couple years ago with a yearling team from Martin Buser. Now, with his own team of dogs, Failor secured his first spot within the top 20 this year, arriving in 15th place.
