Alaskan Pete Kaiser wins first Iditarod

Pete Kaiser became the latest Alaska native to win the Iditarod dog sled race.

Kaiser won the race for the first time early Wednesday, crossing the finish line in Nome after beating back a challenge from the defending champion, Norwegian musher Joar Ulsom.

Crowds cheered and clapped as Kaiser came off the Bering Sea ice and mushed down Nome's main street to the famed burled arch finish line.

The 1,000-mile race began March 3 north of Anchorage.

Four other Alaska native mushers have won the race, including John Baker, an Inupiaq from Kotzebue, in 2011.

Kaiser will receive $50,000 and a pickup truck for the victory.

Aaron Hernandez's murder conviction was reinstated in a sweeping ruling from Massachusetts' highest court that does away with the legal principle that made the former NFL star innocent in the eyes of the law after he killed himself in prison.

Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart headlined the six new nominees eligible for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Stewart joined Neil Bonnett, a popular member of the "Alabama Gang," two-time Xfinity Series champion Sam Ard, former Daytona 500 winner Marvin Panch, short-track racer Jim Paschal and mechanic Red Vogt as the new nominees. There are 20 nominees and five are elected each year.

Cubs reliever Pedro Strop has a strained right hamstring, eliminating the likely candidate to close at the start of the season as Brandon Morrow recovers from elbow surgery.

Strop, a 33-year-old righthander, felt a hamstring issue on his last pitch Saturday against the Angels, his second appearance of spring training. An MRI on Monday revealed a mild strain. The Cubs said Strop is able to play catch but will not participate in game-related drills during the next week.

... The Nationals agreed to a one year, $1 million deal with lefthanded reliever Tony Sipp.

Tennis: Bianca Andreescu, an 18-year-old Canadian, routed two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza 6-0, 6-1 to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Miomir Kecmanovic, a 19-year-old Serb ranked 130th in the world, advanced when Yoshihito Nishioka retired in the second set.

Skiing: Beat Feuz and Nicole Schmidhofer wrapped up the season-long downhill titles at the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra, despite neither winning a race Wednesday. Feuz, needing just a top-12 result, took sixth in the men's race, which was won by Dominik Paris. Schmidhofer clinched the title when her only remaining rival, Ramona Siebenhofer, failed to get the victory she needed. Mirjam Puchner won the race.