In March, Raitto won second place in a four-mile race in the 2005 World Champion-ships of the Inter-national Federation of Sled Dog Sports in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Whip is the newly crowned Reader's Digest Word Power Chall-enge state champion, now preparing for national competition in Orlando, Fla., in April.

Raitto has been mushing dogs since she was 2 or 3 years old, which is not surprising considering that her mother, Mari Hoe-Raitto also mushes and also competed in Dawson City. Because Raitto has dual U.S. and Norwegian citizenship, she represented Norway in the Dawson City event.

"There were a lot of competitors, but in my age group there were only five people," Raitto said of the 12- to 14-year-old mushers. Running a team of four dogs, she completed the four-mile distance in 11 minutes, 29 seconds. Raitto, who has entered the event several times in the past, said it was not her best time, but it was enough to place second, with United States' Sadie Theriault taking first place and Mecala Decoffe of Canada taking third. Riatto's mother represented Norway in the unlimited category and took third place, with Germany's Klaus Starflinger in first and Canada's Mark Hartum in third.

Raitto also is a member of Homer Middle School's track team and has begun practicing for the season ahead. During the summer, she keeps her dogs in shape by trading her sled for a four-wheeler.

After spring break, Whip, who won the school's Reader's Digest Word Power Challenge, was notified that he had also won the state championship. The competition is a vocabulary contest designed for grades four through eight in all 50 states. Also invited to participate are students from the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Amer-ican Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, as well as home-schooled students.

"I read a lot of books," said Whip of efforts to expand his vocabulary. He is now hard at work studying for national competition that will be held at Disney World. "I just finished a Garth Nix book and am looking for another one to read."

Traveling with Whip to the national competition will be HMS teacher Nancy Vait and his mom, Lisa.

"She's coming because she wants to bum a free vacation," said Whip, laughing about his mother going along.

For a sample of Reader's Digest Word Power Challenge, visit the Web at www.rd.com/ and click on "Play Word Power." Or just accept Whip's description of the competition.

"It's hard," he said.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.