Fortunately -- or unfortunately for them -- a pack of young, hungry racers, mostly 20-somethings, will be on the trail this year, ready to pounce if their elders falter.

Among them:

Dallas Seavey

24, Willow

The third-generation Iditarod musher is the son of 2004 champion Mitch Seavey and may be the strongest of the young mushing turks. Already in 2011 he has won the 1,000 mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Despite his youth, Seavey has gobs of experience, with four Iditarod finishes. The 2009 race was his best finish -- sixth. And last year was his fastest -- 9 days, 10 hours, 4 minutes. In fact, he was leading that race to the halfway point of Cripple.

Supplementing that experience is a top-notch athletic pedigree. Seavey was an Alaska high school wrestling champ who was the No. 8-ranked high school wrestler in the nation in his weight class in 2003, earned a college athletic scholarship and trained at the U.S. Olympic Education Center's Greco-Roman Wrestling Program.

Heck, he's even learning how to get by on less sleep these days. He and wife Jen, an Iditarod veteran herself, became the proud parents of daughter Annie in July.

Six years ago, Seavey became the youngest Iditarod racer ever, turning 18 the day before the Fourth Avenue start.

Far from a hindrance, Seavey sees youth as an advantage.

"These guys all have a lot of history -- with the trail and with the race," he said of the crew of front-runners. "But we've been around it. We know what to do.

"We can hit it with a little more enthusiasm, without preconceived notions and ideas. We can bring in a lot of fresh stuff because we can look at this race more objectively than traditionally."

Seavey purchased the 16 dogs that carried Nenana musher Aaron Burmeister to seventh place in the 2009 Iditarod. Two top-10 kennels rarely merge that way.

"That gave his kennel an incredible amount of depth," said Burmeister, who isn't racing this year. "He's a very savvy young musher."

Cain Carter

19, Fairbanks

The stepson of Lance Mackey seems like a younger version of Dallas Seavey -- seeped in the mushing life and the son of a champion. Carter won the 2009 Junior Iditarod. In January, he finished 21st at the Copper Basin 300, behind kennel partner Newton Marshall, the Jamaican musher who continues to train at Mackey's Comeback Kennel in Fairbanks.

Jessica Hendricks

25, Two Rivers

The North Pole High graduate will start her fourth Iditarod, having never finished out of the top 25. Marked as a racer to watch after winning the rookie-of-the-year award in 2003 for her 19th-place showing, she competed in sprint races as a youth and began preparing for the Iditarod as a junior in high school. She's twice won the Tustumena 200 and was runner-up at the Sheep Mountain 150 in 2006. She and kennel partner Thomas Lesatz have built a kennel of more than 80 dogs outside of Fairbanks.

Pete Kaiser

23, Bethel

He burst on the scene with a sixth-place finish at the Kuskokwim 300 two years ago, topping such renowned mushers as Ed Iten, DeeDee Jonrowe and Hugh Neff. Since then, the 2005 Bethel High graduate has expanded his kennel from 27 dogs to more than 40. Last year as an Iditarod rookie, he finished 28th. This year, he finished third in Bethel's Kuskokwim 300, delighting the local fans.

"It's great to see a big crowd down here," he told Bethel radio station KYUK at the finish line.

In the summer, Kaiser works on the tug boat Arctic Gull.

"It's a 48-foot tug and we push a 150-by-50-foot barge up and down the Kuskokwim River," Kaiser said.

Once the river freezes, though, it's mushing season.

Melissa Owens

21, Nome

Owens etched one of mushing's memorable scenes in 2008 when, as an 18-year-old Iditarod rookie, she drove six dogs down familiar Front Street to the cheers of hundreds of hometown fans, one of the biggest crowds to greet any finisher.

"Come on, bring 'em home," Mike Owens yelled into a microphone to cheer his daughter, who became the youngest woman to finish the Iditarod.

These days, Owens is living in Knik, training her team while enrolled full time at Charter College, studying criminal justice. That doesn't leave much time for sleep.

"Somehow, we manage to get everything done. But the dogs are looking pretty good," she said in late January. "We ran them 47 miles yesterday and they came in looking like they hadn't run at all."

Mushing has been part of Owens life since birth -- and even before. When her mother Pat was pregnant with Melissa in 1990, Mike was preparing to run the Iditarod. Melissa's due date nearly coincided with the Iditarod food-drop deadline, so despite the discomforts of pregnancy, Pat helped Mike put together his food drops.

"You can't have that baby until we get these food drops done," Mike told her.

Melissa arrived in the world just hours after the final food drop bag was prepared. Mike carried 11-day-old Melissa in his arms to the stage at that 1990 Iditarod banquet in Anchorage while gingerly drawing his bib number.

Michael Williams Jr.

26, Akiak

Son of famed Iditarod musher Mike Williams Sr., the Akiak musher has run dogs since childhood and helped his father prepare for 14 Iditarods.

Last year as an Iditarod rookie, he surpassed his dad's fastest time to Nome. His time of 10 days, 6 hours, 45 minutes left the youngster in 26th place, the second rookie to Front Street. Mike Williams Sr.'s best finish came in 1997, when he was 18th.

The younger Williams shocked the mushing community in January by missing a Kuskokwim 300 championship by a mere 60 seconds.

"(Mike Williams Sr.'s) son is driving the same dogs we always knew were good, but that's a big guy they were towing around," said the Kusko race president, Myron Angstman. "We always wondered what it would be like if the young kid took over. I'm not surprised the team has moved up just by switching over to a younger, lighter fellow."

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Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.