EAGLE LAKE – Claude Baril of St. Zenon, Quebec, won the Irving Woodlands Eagle Lake 100 sled dog race Sunday morning coming across the finish line nine minutes ahead of Normand Cassavant of Val Des Lacs, Quebec

Baril won the quest with a time of 9 hours, 25 minutes.

All 16 mushers who started the 100-mile race Saturday morning finished the race under ideal temperatures on a course that could not have been better, according to Baril. The last musher finished at 7:45 a.m. Sunday, 45 minutes before the mushers banquet.

Baril, 57, won $1,200 for his team’s effort. It was his first Eagle Lake race and he will return next year to defend his championship.

“I’m pretty happy with this team of mine,” said the 20-year veteran musher. “They worked hard, and even if Normand was only 10 minutes behind, I knew my team would take me through this.

“I’m just the guy behind the sled,” he added. “Even when I thought they would slow down, Gizmo [his leader] would get them going again and they finished strong.”

Baril said he kept looking back on the final leg, knowing Cassavant was just behind him. His dogs, he said, have a lot of heart.

“I’m on a bit of a cloud right now,” he said.

Three mushers who were scheduled to race at Eagle Lake scratched before the start of the race. The race usually takes 25 teams, but only had 16 this year because of a conflict in racing dates with a larger race in Minnesota.

Defending champion Matt Carstens of New Hampshire was racing in Minnesota this weekend.

Irving Woodlands LLC donated the $5,000 purse for the Eagle Lake race again this year. The first-place musher receives $1,200 and the remaining $3,800 is split by the other nine mushers who finish in the top 10.

The race started at 11 a.m. Saturday under clear sunny skies and temperatures in negative numbers. Early morning temperatures of 24 degrees below zero warmed to 5 degrees below zero at starting time. Afternoon temperatures rose to 14 degrees.

A couple of hundred people lined the starting gate at the town’s public beach near the Old Mill Marina. Mushers started at two-minute intervals heading for Moose Point Camps at Fish Lake.

There they had a four-hour layover where Sen. John L. Martin (D-Eagle Lake) hosted the mushers and volunteers and sent them on their way with full stomachs.

Race Marshall John Kaleta said the race effort is assisted greatly each year by a good veterinary staff that includes Jeremy Bither, Nick Pesut, both with years of experience with the Can Am Crown International Sled Dog Race and Turner Lewis, a veteran of Alaska’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race.