Brittany Allen, a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, has been honored with the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year Award for Connecticut. This award recognizes her outstanding achievements in cross-country and track, as well as her academic and leadership skills. Only 52 athletes have been bestowed this year with this lofty honor, 10 of which will be named National finalists in October.
“I’m excited to have won it,” Allen said. “It came out of nowhere when I wasn’t even thinking about it. Courtney [Quirin ’05] is the one who actually told me I won it. It’s nice to be recognized with other amazing athletes for all of my hard work though.”
Allen was a captain in both cross-country and track during her senior year at Wesleyan, and she has many accolades on her illustrious collegiate athletic career resume. One of her greatest accomplishments came in 2002, when she qualified for the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, with a career best 800-meter time of 2:17.93. She is also part of Wesleyan’s all-time record-holding 4x400m and 4x800m squads. The incredible accomplishments didn’t always come easy for Allen, but luckily she had plenty of people to help her out along the way.
“I’ve always had amazing support from my family, teammates and coach,” Allen said. “Coach Crooke supported me in everything I did, even when I was struggling with balancing running and schoolwork. I thrived under him, and it got to the point where I could achieve great things. The team was always a great group to be around, and they were very inspiring.”
Team, more so than individual accomplishments, have always been a high priority for Allen. One of the highlights of her athletic career was when she helped take the Cardinals cross-country squad to the NCAA Division III Championship in 2002. Most of the time, she ran in the 800-meter or 1500-meter event. She was always a team leader and a consistently above average performer in her medium distance running roles during her years as an NCAA athlete. This spring, Allen was honored with the Roger Maynard Memorial Award as the top female senior scholar-athlete at Wesleyan.
Her academic performance is just as astounding as her athletic accomplishments. Allen was named to the NCAA Academic All-America team for cross-country several times, and she achieved academic all-NESCAC honors in both track and cross-country. She majored in Women’s Studies and the Science in Society Program. She was voted Phi Beta Kappa in the fall of 2003, and she graduated with University Honors in 2004. Only three other members of the class graduated with University Honors, the top academic achievement at Wesleyan University.
Miles away from Middletown, in Madison, WI, Allen has not forgotten to give credit to the people who have contributed to her success.
“My coach and team are a big part of why I won this award, and that’s the most important thing,” Allen said.
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