Allison Lee Qualifies for Foot Locker Nationals

Allison Lee (WW-P North) crosses the finish line in 6th place at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional, booking her spot at Foot Locker Nationals. | footlockercc.com

Thanks to a gusty and confident run on a cold morning in Boston, Allison Lee (WW-P North) is headed to San Diego for Foot Locker Nationals! The star junior finished in 6th place at today’s Foot Locker Northeast Regional with a time of 17:59.

In a race where the top ten advance to nationals, Lee put herself in a qualifying position right from the gun and never relinquished it. Undaunted by the very aggressive opening pace, she passed the one-mile marker in 4th place and towards the front of a large pack. Her first mile split was 5:26 — that’s 16:53 pace. The hot pace caused many runners to drop off in the next mile, by Lee stayed right up there and was still in 5th at two miles. She closed it out with a strong last mile to finish in 6th place. That’s the second-highest finish by a NJ girl in the last five years!

According to TullyRunners’ speed ratings, Lee raced even better today (speed rating of 139) than she did at the Group Championships (135) or the Meet of Champions (134). Lee finished two seconds ahead of Northern Burlington’s Liliah Gordon, who had previously beaten Lee at both of those New Jersey state meets. Gordon will be running at Foot Locker Nationals for the second straight year.

Lee is the third Mercer County girl to ever qualify for Foot Locker Nationals, which has been around for 45 years. WW-P South’s Katie Kellner and Caroline Kellner qualified in 2008 and 2010, respectively. On the boys side, there have also been three qualifiers: Brian Leung (WW-P South) in 2007, Phil Wood (Pennington) in 2008, and Liam Murphy (Allentown) in 2019.