Expectations were lofty for Junior Allen heading into this past fall’s cross-country season. And the Oakton High School senior runner probably exceeded his goals.
Allen ran to district and region individual championships on the Burke Lake Park course during the 2023 campaign, and was third in the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 boys state meet. He then capped his prep cross country career with a runner-up finish, when he was seeded 30th, on a slow and muddy course in the fastest race at the RunningLane Cross Country championships in Hunstsville, Ala.
Added to the list of season accomplishments was the second fastest time he recorded by any Oakton runner (14:30 in the region meet) – and there have been many standout Oakton runners in program history – on the Burke Lake Park course. In 1978, Jim Hill ran 14:26 on the course and still owns the mark as Oakton’s fastest on the course.
His time of 14:30 was 18 seconds faster than winning the district meet a week earlier on the same course.
There also was an 18th-place finish (15:12) at the Nike Southeast Region championships in Cary, N.C.
“Junior had an incredible season,” Oakton cross country coach Matt Kroetch said. “He had a strong breakout outdoor [track and field] season for us last spring in the two-mile and relays when his workouts and training really started clicking. Then he had a good summer training and staying healthy preparing for cross country in the fall. He was very driven and I could see a tenacity in his workouts.”
Allen was happy with his season.
“Overall it was a good season and better than I thought, because I ran against top competition and won some big races (three),” Allen said. “I focused a lot on doing different training techniques for cross country leading up to the season, and did some high-mileage training in July. A big goal was to stay healthy, and I did that.”
The regular-season meet Allen won was the Third Battle of Winchester when he ran 15:01.
Allen had high hopes to win the state meet, but said there was a big hill late in the race where the top two finishers pulled away a bit.
“I didn’t get up that hill as fast as I wanted, and they got farther ahead,” he said.
Still, finishing third was an improvement of his eighth-place in the meet the previous season.
One goal Allen did not achieve as a senior was to break 15-minutes for the first time in high school on a 5,000-meter cross country course. The closest he came was 15:01.
Allen ran 15:15 flat in Huntsville. If the course had not been muddy, Allen figures he would have broken 15 minutes by five to 10 seconds.
“My plan in that race was to stay with the lead pack, and I did that,” Allen said. “The lead runner broke away a little, then I misjudged the finish a bit, and I held on for second.”
The winning time was 15:05.30.
Next, Allen wants to have strong indoor and outdoor track and field seasons for Oakton, then run for a Division I program in college.
