Five of 25 mushers remaining in the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races’ 15th annual running of the Irving Woodlands 250-mile race were in the last 100 miles of the race Sunday night and within 39 minutes of each other.

Don Hibbs of Millinocket, a three-time winner of the race, was the leader at the 150-mile checkpoint Sunday. He was seven minutes ahead of Tim Calhoun of Tomahawk, Wis. In third place, six minutes back, was Rick Larson of San Coulee, Mont. Fourth was Rita Wehseler of Tofte, Minn., and Matt Carstens, the defending champion from New Hampshire, was in fifth place, 39 minutes in back of the leader Hibbs.

Five other teams were on the trail between Maibec’s Lumber Camp, checkpoint three, and Allagash on Sunday night.

Fourteen other mushers remained in the race. They were spread out over the trail from a checkpoint at Rocky Brook, 39 miles west of Portage Lake and the Maibec Lumber Camp, 10 miles east of the Maine-Quebec border. Six other mushers had scratched from the competition by late Sunday afternoon.

The top 12 finishers of the race will divide a $20,000 purse, with the winner getting at least $4,500.

On Saturday, 59 other teams of mushers competed in 30- and 60-mile races, which were completed by early Saturday evening. Mushers from Quebec took the top three places in the Pepsi-Budweiser 30-mile race, and three mushers from Ontario were top finishers in the Willard Jalbert Memorial 60-mile race.

Nearly a foot of fresh snow fell during the night Friday, just hours before the start of the race. The snow, coupled with temperatures into the 30s on Saturday, made for a tough run on the opening day of the 250-mile classic race.

The 67-mile leg from Fort Kent to Portage took nearly nine hours, a sluggish run even for the fastest teams in the

competition. The fastest team into the first of five checkpoints traveled less than 71/2 miles per hour.

Trails remained punchy through the night Saturday, when temperatures failed to drop below the mid-20s. They became even softer Sunday with rising temperatures and more snow.

For Hibbs, a win would tie him with Andre Nadeau with four wins in the 250-mile race. His last win was in 2000 when Nadeau came in third in his last race at Fort Kent.

In the fall of that year, Hibbs had hip replacement surgery.

“I don’t think about the end of the race anymore,” Hibbs said 100 miles from the finish line Sunday morning. “I used to. … Now I just do the best I can, and whatever happens, happens. I have a young leader [dog] who is something else. I’ve had a good race.”

“He’s notorious,” Carstens said of Hibbs while at Maibec. “He’s mastered the run from here [Maibec] to Allagash and Fort Kent.

“I was surprised to see him pull into here behind me. I expected others,” Carstens said. “He [Hibbs] does well in these conditions, but we’ve done well also in these two legs of the race. My team always finishes strong. Larson is also here to win.”

The two former winners of the race weren’t the only ones looking at the remaining 100 miles.

Larson, a musher who has competed in the Iditarod in Alaska, looked at a trail map and the number of miles left.

“I have to make up 30 seconds a mile from here to Fort Kent to win,” he said almost to himself. “I have things to do between here and the [finish] line.”

Andre Longchamps of Pont Rouge, Quebec, took eight hours and 48 minutes to make the run to Portage Lake. He paid for the fast time when his exhausted dogs refused to go farther, 10 miles short of the Maibec checkpoint Sunday. He scratched from the competition.

Hibbs, Martin Massicote of St. Tite, Quebec, and Normand Casavant of Val des Lacs, Quebec, were also in under nine hours at Portage Lake.

Casavant and Hibbs, the 29th and 30th teams to leave Fort Kent, passed 23 and 22 teams, respectively, to pull into Portage Lake as the sixth and eighth teams.

“It was a good run,” Hibbs said at Portage Lake while feeding his dogs behind the municipal building. “It was a tough run but a good one.

“Easy, easy, easy,” he kept repeating to each of his 12 dogs as he fed and pet them.

“Look at these dogs. They’ve been running 21 of the last 24 hours, and they are still happy and in good spirits,” Hibbs said 80 miles farther up the trail at the third checkpoint, the Maibec Lumber Camp.

“The snow, it was a slow run,” said Carstens, the defending champion in the Fort Kent classic.

Can-Am race results

Pepsi-Budweiser

30-mile race

1. Martin Belanger, St.-Rudolph d’Howard, Quebec, 3 hours, 27 minutes, 1 second.

2. Fred Dumont, St. Eugene de Grantham, Quebec, 3:28:29.

3. Andrew Zollner, Lantier, Quebec, 3:40:42.

4. Caroline Blair-Smith, Albany Township, 3:48:19.

5. Robin Gratton, Val des Lacs, Quebec, 3:49:44.

6. Jocelyn Bradbury, Oxford, 3:53:19.

7. Gabriel Duplessis, St. Zenon, Quebec, 3:56:24.

8. Stephane Duplessis, St. Zenon, Quebec, 3:57:44.

9. Nancy Rivet-Duplessis, St. Zenon, Quebec, 3:58:29.

10. Denis Tremblay, St. Paul D’Abbotsford, Quebec, 4:00:07.

11. Genevieve Telmouse, Val-des-Lacs, Quebec, 4:02:30.

12. Manon Moore, St. Gabriel de Brandon, Quebec, 4:07:19.

13. Karen Miller, Sadyston, N.J., 4:14:24.

14. Michael Lloyd, Stetson, 4:16:34.

15. Ngarewa Houston-Cummings, White River Junction, Vt., 4:19:03.

16. Jacques Trottier, St. Gabriel de Rimouski, Quebec, 4:22:34.

17. Marybeth Logue, Trout Run, Pa., 4:23:22.

18. David Punch, Orange, Conn., 4:27:20.

19. Lindy Howe, Corinth, 4:35:21.

20. Dennis Cyr, Fort Kent, 4:39:06.

21. Christina Eagle, Orland, 4:54:53.

22. Mark Smith, Newton, N.J., 4:57:45.

23. Al Tarr, Gibsonia, Pa., 5:07:14.

24. Richard Block, Antrin, N.H., 5:13:45.

25. Tara Lemieux, Philips, 5:20:38.

26. Alf Bergman, New Sweden, 5:22:21.

27. Becki Tucker, Voluntown, Conn., 5:26:21.

28. Joan Chapman, Corinth, 5:34:30.

29. Johanne Cloutier, Edmundston, New Brunswick, did not start.

30. Paul Boudreau, L’Assomption, Quebec, DNS.

Willard Jalbert Jr.

Memorial 60-mile Race

1. Rene Marchildon, South River, Ontario, 7 hours, 4 minutes, 4 seconds.

2. Shawn Akins, Willliamstown, Ontario, 7:20:12.

3. Jacob Golton, L’Amable, Ontario, 7:25:21.

4. Linda Hart, Stillwater, Minn., 7:46:08.

5. Diane Marquis, St. Hugues, Quebec, 7:47:21.

6. Amelie Aubut, Pont Rouge, Quebec, 7:50:08.

7. Alan Ricalton, Natural Bridge, N.Y., 7:57:27.

8. Burr Neeley, Millinocket, 7:58:23.

9. Laura Daugerau, Sand Coulee, Ontario, 8:02:14.

10. Sarah Lynch, Tofte, Minn., 8:06:56.

11. Scott Shaw, Stirling, Ontario, 8:08:00.

12. Kricket Ingerson, Jefferson, N.H., 8:14:52.

13. Rhonda O’Hearn, Sandown, N.H., 8:20:24.

14 Claudette Blouin, St. Hugues, Quebec, 8:23:19.

15. Sylvain Voyer, St. Gabriel de Rimouski, Quebec, 8:28:13

16. Marc Alain, St. Etienne, Quebec, 8:36:22.

17. Eric Chagnon, Parent, Quebec, 8:45:22.

18. Colin Sainsbury, Canaan, N.H., 8:48:37.

19. Ken Golton, L’Amable, Ontario, 8:49:21.

20. Eli Golton, L’Amable, Ontario, 8:51:27.

21. Jason Bennet, Fort Kent, 9:03:17.

22. Carey Lokken, Chisholm, Minn., 9:14:43.

23. Kathy Lesinski, Broad Brook, Conn., 9:21:24.

24. Rob Cooke, Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, 10:05:02.

25. Terry Knowles, Brownville, 10:11:58.

26. Shawn Linendoll, Fort Ann, N.Y., 10:13:45.

27. Clayton Doubleday, Lisbon, N.H., 11:37:37.

28. Kip Bartlett, West Lebanon, N.H., did not start.