Brooks Northeast Championship: Lee qualifies for Nationals with 5th-place finish
WWP North’s Allison Lee celebrates as she crosses the line in 5th place at the Brooks Northeast Championship 2025. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
WWP North’s Allison Lee is heading back to San Diego after qualifying for the Brooks XC National Championship!
It was a very cold and windy day in Boston on Saturday for the Brooks Northeast Championship, where the top 10 finishers would qualify for the Brooks XC National Championship. Lee wasted no time in staking a claim to one of those coveted spots. She was in 6th by the first mile marker, moved up to 5th over the next mile, and held that position all the way to the finish. Her time of 17:20.7 was phenomenal given the conditions and the moderately hilly course.
This was a huge, clutch performance by the WWP North senior to extend her high school XC career. Despite having finished 6th at this same race last year, she was no shoe-in to qualify again this year against a very talented field.
But Lee ran the best race of her season — and maybe career — on Saturday. For context, Lee’s speed rating here was 9 points higher (roughly 30 seconds’ worth) than her races at Groups and the Meet of Champions. As another point of comparison, while she finished 45 seconds behind Ocean Township’s Leah Starkey at both of those prior races, she was only 18 seconds behind Starkey here.
Lee became just the 14th New Jersey girl to qualify twice for the Foot Locker / Brooks XC National Championship, which has been held since 1979.
Lee is going to be one of five New Jersey girls competing at the Brooks XC National Championship on December 13. Starkey finished 3rd in this qualifying race with a time of 17:02, and Hunterdon Central’s Molly Domurat finished 9th in 17:33. Additionally, Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett and Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard will be in San Diego after receiving Golden Tickets, which qualified them automatically without having to run in this regional race. 10% of the field at Brooks hails the Garden State -- and 4% from Mercer County! That’s some incredible representation on the national stage.
Lawrence’s Izzy Meth outkicks two girls to take 28th place at the Brooks XC Northeast Championship 2025. | cadendussaultphotography for MileSplit
Two other local girls traveled to Boston and got some valuable regional racing experience. Lawrence junior Izzy Meth crushed a new 5K PR of 18:37.1 — again, an excellent time in this weather and on this course — to place a very impressive 28th place in the championships race. Wilberforce junior Stella Blanchard closed out her incredible breakout XC season by taking 52nd place in 19:34.4.