LOWELL, Mass.  –  UMass Lowell senior distance runner Robert Allen (Cranston, R.I.) has been named the River Hawk of the Week after winning UMass Lowell's first ever individual ECAC/IC4A Championship and scoring in a second event at the 2015 Outdoor Championships at Weaver Stadium on the campus of Princeton University.

Allen won the 5,000-meters in a time of 14-minutes, 10.96-seconds and earned a second "All-East" honor finishing eighth in the 1,500-meters.  He the only athlete to compete in two distance events and ran competitively on three consecutive days. 

UMass Lowell Head Coach Gary Gardner described Allen's 5,000-meter win as "the biggest win of the year, this is your moment of the year."

In the longer of the two events Allen, after hanging with the lead group, grabbed the lead with about 800-meters to go and finished three-seconds ahead of the rest of the field.  In taking the IC4A title, Allen defeated Hassan Omar of UMBC who'd won the event at the America East Championships.  An emotional Allen, at his last track competition in a UMass Lowell uniform, told Gardner he "wasn't sure (he) could do it, but had to give everything (he) had."   

Allen earned his second All-East honor with an eighth-place finish in the 1,500-meters.  He clocked in at three-minutes, 50.32-seconds.  The race wrapped up what was more than six-miles of racing spread over three days and three races.

Allen won the 5,000-meters Friday, qualified for the 1,500-meters final with a strong run in the qualifying heat Saturday and then ran the final Sunday.  It was the first time he'd raced on three consecutive days.  

"He ran really hard, but had almost nothing left in the tank," said Gardner.  "He was running on passion.  We were very pleased; he far exceeded anything we could have expected."

The "River Hawk of the Week" is chosen each week in voting by the UMass Lowell Athletic Communications staff. It honors the top athlete, male or female, based on performance during the previous week of competition.