Samantha LaLonde, rookie of the year

Samantha LaLonde's team at the Ceremonial Start
of Iditarod 53. March 1, 2025. Anchorage, AK.

The first rookie musher crossed under the burled arch early Sunday morning, becoming the 2025 Rookie of the Year. Samantha LaLonde of Farmington Hills, MI finished he race in 12 days, 14 hours, 20 minutes, and 56 seconds. LaLonde had nine dogs on her team when she came into Nome, leading the way was LaLonde's "baby girl" Gibbs. 

Samantha was running a team made up of 15 dogs from Dallas Seavey's kennel, and one very special dog all her own. Gibbs is Samantha's sled dog and Gibbs was a star leader in her Iditarod team leading in single lead for much of the final run into Nome (except when they hit the crowds and Gibbs got shy). Sam was incredibly proud from even before the race began to speak on how Gibbs (named for an NCIS character) had made her Iditarod team. For her pup to make it not all the way but to lead for much of it, the musher couldn't do anything but beam while talking about her.

From Nulato to Nome Sam was running with injury. As her team left the checkpoint of Nulato, Sam recounted, her powerful team took off a little too aggressively and she was slammed up against the berm they'd been parked next to and she "stepped wrong" causing an injury she was very worried was a broken foot. According to reports by her partner posting on Sam's Instagram page, "the gimp" was dealing with a sprained ankle. Another report later in the race said that her foot was so swollen she was unable to get her boot off. Mushers, right?

While Sam was out on the trail with her always jovial demeanor, back home her partner was gathering his own following on Instagram. Tucker's updates gave more insight into his and Sam's personalities than they did any sort of real race analysis, and fans ate it up. From putting a humorous spin to an injury, to sharing what Sam is eating on the trail (thank God for beef sticks), to even sharing what family and friends do in Nome as they wait for their hero to finish. Fans. Ate. It. Up. 

Samantha has worked toward her Iditarod moment for many years, she worked with several kennels before landing a couple of years ago in Dallas Seavey's kennel. Sam worked through her qualifiers, sometimes having the Iditarod champion handle for her in those races, and managed to be the lone representative of Dallas' kennel in the 2025 race. For many of the dogs on the team they've worked with Samantha to get to their Iditarod moment as well. Many rookies come to Iditarod in this same way, but all that hard work is their own and their bond with the dogs is strong.

For Samantha she was not focused on being the first rookie to finish. Her schedule was not one that in a normal year would be up there with the top, but she found herself comfortably in the middle of the pack of both rookies and veterans. As the unexpected difficulties of the trail compounded on the many... many.... MANY miles on the Yukon River, Samantha saw her position steadily rise. Her team managing every obstacle even after their musher didn't and injured herself. As she muscled through pain (imagine having to stand on a sprain on sled runners for hours at a time, and not always on smooth trail) the dogs kicked into that gear all too familiar after a week on the trail. Soon Samantha found herself running with rookie front runner Emily Ford. 

Though the two women had different schedules for their Iditarod, they found themselves on the coast together. As they made their way into Shaktoolik they formed a plan that they would run across the Norton Sound into Koyuk. A pact that many teams make as they cross the most anxiety ridden portion of the trail no matter what route they've taken to get there. They rested in Koyuk together, leaving just minutes apart, and there their schedules once again diverged. Sam was now going to do somewhat longer runs knowing her team could handle it as long as they kept a steady pace. They had an 8 hour mandatory layover in White Mountain and then a 77 mile jaunt to the finish. Ford chose a bit more of a conservative approach and remains on the trail Sunday morning.

Samantha LaLonde at 2:20am AKDT finished as the top rookie, perhaps not as planned, but certainly as earned as if he had. Her blue eyes bright, her smile wide. She laughed at some of the questions asked her by Nicolle the Clipboard Lady, she thanked "everybody" and then named some of them Dallas, Tucker, Her Parents, Tucker's parents... everybody. And the dogs. Those awesome nine dogs that took her all the way and the 16 who all worked to make sure their musher could get to Nome. 

Before Tucker signed off from Sam's account he announced that he and Sam have started their own kennel and encouraged all of their fans, old and new, to follow their journey post Iditarod.