Arien Sanderson, 16, is an eleventh grader from Palmer, Alaska. She got her start running dogs with Alan Eischens at the age of 3-years-old. In 2016, she got her first sled dog. Since then, Midnight Howlers Racing Kennel has expanded to 24 dogs. Arien has a wide variety of mid-distances races under her belt: Willow Jr. 100 (6th - 2022, 3rd - 2023, 5th - 2025), Yukon Quest 80 (6th - 2023, 2nd - 2024), Goose Bay 150 (4th - 2024), Jr. Iditarod (10th - 2024, 6th - 2025). In her free time, Arien will almost always be found doing something outside. She enjoys running, hiking, hunting, fishing, snow machining, four-wheeling, and biking. When she graduates high school, she would like to go into the veterinary field and also run Iditarod.