Iditarod's 96 mushers will include 3 from state

By Staff Reports

February 19, 2008 at 7:34AM

Three of the 96 mushers in this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will be from northeastern Minnesota.

They are Iditarod veteran and U.S. Forest Service employee Blake Freking, who lives near Finland with his wife, veterinarian Jen Freking. She's racing, too. Jen Freking is an Iditarod rookie who ran the Junior Iditarod and handled dogs for the big race when she was 17.

The third contestant is professional sled-dog racer John Stetson of Duluth, an Iditarod rookie with perhaps 100,000 miles on a dogsled.

The race will begin March 1 with a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Then it begins in earnest in Willow.

Etc. • The Gophers men's basketball team's final regular-season home game, against Ohio State on March 1, will start at 3 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN. The Gophers also announced that the gametime for their game at Indiana on March 5 will be 6 p.m.

• The Gophers-Wisconsin women's hockey game at Ridder Arena on Saturday will begin at 4 p.m. The start time was moved back an hour to accommodate two girls' hockey state tournament consolation games.

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