Dreams start early for young mushers

WILLOW — For young mushers hopeful of a future in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the Junior Iditarod is a good place to start.

Thirteen teenagers will try to sharpen their mushing skills as they compete in the junior version of the Last Great Race, which starts Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Willow Community Center in Willow. Mushers from 14 to 17 years old will test themselves aginst the 150-mile course that runs from Willow to Yentna Station and back.

The Jr. Iditarod can be a platform for Iditarod future contenders, Michelle Pearson, board president of the Jr. Iditarod, said.

“I would guess that about 50 percent of Jr. Iditarod mushers go on to compete in the Iditarod down the road. You know it something their all probably thinking about,” she said.

There also will be an added highlight for this weekend’s contest, a visit from Larry Csonka, a former National Football League great who is now host of the television show, “North to Alaska.”

Csonka will be present at the race’s start Saturday morning with his film crew to follow the race out to Yentna and back, Pearson said.

Although Csonka’s presence maybe an added feature, the teenagers competing on Saturday’s race will be focusing on the trail which “will be hard and really fast,” said Pearson.

She expects the times’ for the mushers to be quick as the hardened snow will allow teams to travel quicker than thicker wet snow would allow.

The mushers will race 75 miles to the halfway point at Yentna Station, stay for the mandatory 10-hour layover, and then head back on Sunday morning to finish around 10 a.m., Pearson said.

The race was scheduled to start at Knik Lake, but due to the warmer weather and overflow on surrounding lakes and streams it was deemed safer to start at Willow.

“It was not a good idea to have them out there going over the standing water so we moved it up to Willow,” Pearson said.

Although the move north could possible bring less fans, Pearson expects a turnout of a couple hundred people for the race’s start.

“It is always a smaller crowd when we start in Willow but were hoping that Csonka’s presence will bring some more people out for the race,” she said.

This year’s class of mushers will have an international aspect as Spanish musher Anton Guillermo will be competing against his American peers.

Guillermo, a 17-year-old exchange student from Spain, has some experience in mushing. He completed the Jr. Tustumena and won race’s award for best checkpoint efficiency, according to the Jr. Iditarod website.

If Guillermo is to win, he may have to beat out Rebekah Ruzicka who comes in at a two-race hot streak, winning the Jr. Tustumena and the Willow Jr. 100.

Competition for the top spots could be fierce, as the top five finishers will be awarded amounts of $5,000, $3,000, $1,500 $1,000, and $500. In addition the winners of the race’s Humanitarian award and Sportsmanship award will be given $1,000, reports the Jr. Iditarod website.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com.

2010 Jr. Iditarod field:

Guillermo Anton; Kaye Berg; Jonathan Biggerstaff/Myers; Jeff Holt; Jeremiah Klejka; Emily Krol; Meredith Mapes; Merissa Osmar; Rebekah Ruzicka; Ilsa Schwarzburg; Tobin Sworts; Yuta Takagi; Anitra Winkler.