2025 Broken Arrow Ascent Results: Christian Allen and Anna Gibson Win Shortened Race

Christian Allen (post-race interview) and Anna Gibson (pre-race interview) won the 2025 Broken Arrow Skyrace Ascent, and it was a near sprint over just 2.15 miles and 1,800 feet up. Despite the shortened distance, both Allen and Gibson were way out front. Both earned spots on Team USA for the World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race, and earned Mountain Running World Cup points too.

Expected gale force winds cut the race course short, and that made for an incredibly exciting race. Race winners Allen and Gibson won by 23 and 94 seconds, but behind them only 63 seconds separated the second through 10th man, and 37 seconds separated the second through fourth U.S. women.

Joyce Muthoni Njeru and Philemon Kiriago share a laugh at the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent start line. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

The Friday, June 20 Broken Arrow Skyrace Ascent was both part of the Mountain Running World Cup and a selection race for the U.S. team that will compete at the World Mountain Running Championships. The top four men and women each earned spots on the U.S. Uphill team for that championships event in September 2025 in Canfranc, Spain. There was a $15,000 prize purse too that paid money five deep and with $3,500 to the winners.

Thanks to the World Mountain Running Association for supporting iRunFar’s 2025 Broken Arrow Skyrace coverage.

The start of the shortened 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent went straight up a ski slope. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

Broken Arrow Ascent Men’s Race

The steep climbing got going right from the start, and up a ski slope. When the pack cleared that first pitch and emptied onto a dirt road, roughly seven minutes into the race, Christian Allen (post-race interview), Kilian Jornet (Spain), Cam Smith, and Joseph Gray were at the front.

Joseph Gray at the halfway point of the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent in second place. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Minutes later and 10 minutes into the race, Allen made his move and took the lead all alone. He crossed the makeshift finish line in 23:49 and it wasn’t really that close. It’d be another 23 seconds before the next man finished.

Allen’s win came four months after he ran 2:10 at the Houston Marathon, and three weeks after he dropped at the U.S. Mountain Running Championships. Allen was fourth at the Broken Arrow Ascent in 2024 on the full course.

Christian Allen, the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent men’s champion. Photo: Broken Arrow Skyrace/Howie Stern

Gray and Smith quickly overtook a slowing Jornet and held their spots to the finish too.

Gray, now aged 41, made his umpteenth U.S. team with a second-place 24:12 finish, and Smith was third in 24:35. It was Gray’s third race in as many weeks following a win at Colorado’s Pepi’s Face-off climb and a second-place run at New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Road Race. For Smith, his third-place run means that he has spots on both the Team USA Uphill and Up and Down teams for the world championships event.

Tyler McCandless, a 2:12 marathoner as recently as 2017, has tried a few times in recent years to make a U.S. team for worlds, including at the Up and Down selection race three weeks ago. He made his first world championships team here with a fourth-place 24:35.

Jornet fell back to 23rd in 27:27.

Cam Smith chasing down Tyler McCandless for third at the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Broken Arrow Ascent Men’s Results

1. Christian Allen (post-race interview) – 23:49
2. Joseph Gray – 24:12
3. Cam Smith – 24:24
4. Tyler McCandless – 24:35
5. David Sinclair – 24:49
6. Joseph Demoor – 24:51
7. Philemon Kiriago (Kenya) – 25:06 (pre-race interview)
8. Roberto Delorenzi (Switzerland) – 25:12
9. Ryan Becker – 25:13
10. Remi Leroux (Canada) – 25:15
11. Noah Williams – 25:27
12. Jeret Gillingham – 25:59
13. Andy Wacker – 26:03
14. Sam Chelanga – 26:11
15. Lukas Ehrle (Germany) – 26:15
16. Henri Aymonod (Italy) – 26:30
17. Griffin Briley – 26:38
18. Joshua Ernst – 26:41
19. Bodhi Gross – 26:51
20. Casey Campbell – 27:08

Full results.

Team USA for the 2025 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Race, after qualifying at the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent (l-to-r): Christian Allen, Cam Smith, Tyler McCandless, and Joseph Gray. Photo: Broken Arrow Skyrace/Howie Stern

Broken Arrow Ascent Women’s Race

Anna Gibson (pre-race interview) completely dominated the women’s race. Almost a minute in front at halfway, at the finish she was was 94 seconds better than second place. That’s an incredible lead for a race that was just over a little more than two miles in distance. Gibson’s runaway win came in 27:32. She won the U.S. Mountain Running Championships three weeks ago, and so like Smith in the men’s race, Gibson too has spots on the U.S. team for both the Up and Down and Uphill races at the World Mountain Running Championships in September 2025.

Anna Gibson, the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent women’s champion. Photo: Broken Arrow Skyrace/Howie Stern

Second-place Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) finished in 29:06. She won here last year but has been a bit off form to start the year and this is perhaps a sign of better finishes ahead. Muthoni Njeru and Gibson will race again in two days at the Broken Arrow 23k.

Joyce Muthoni Njeru running powerfully to second place. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Unlike in the men’s race, some international runners broke up the American finish order. Also in for the world championships but for Canada, Jade Belzberg was third in 29:23.

Sydney Petersen, Hillary Allen, and Jessica Brazeau were the next three American women, and thus the next three who qualified for Team USA. They placed fourth, sixth, and seventh in 30:19, 30:40, and 30:56, respectively. Petersen is a recent Colorado State University runner, Allen is racing three different times on the weekend, and Brazeau is really on an upward trajectory the last couple of years. She was fifth in this race last year.

It seems like Ecuador’s Pema Franchi Antelme is one to watch in the future of international mountain running. At the age of 12, she took fifth for the women.

Jade Belzberg working hard to secure third place and a spot on Team USA for the Uphill race at the World Mountain Running Championships. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Broken Arrow Ascent Women’s Results

1. Anna Gibson – 27:32 (pre-race interview)
2. Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) – 29:06
3. Jade Belzberg (Canada) – 29:23
4. Sydney Petersen – 30:19
5. Pema Franchi Antelme (Ecuador) – 30:37
6. Hillary Allen – 30:40
7. Jessica Brazeau – 30:56
8. Janelle Lincks – 31:12
9. Lara Hamilton (Australia) – 31:14
10. Alexa Aragon – 31:22
11. Natalie Kalin – 31:53
12. Chloe Painter – 32:08
13. Tayler Tuttle – 32:09
14. Alicia Vargo – 32:27
15. Emily Clarke – 32:28
16. Addie Bracy – 32:29
17. Allie Ostrander – 32:36
18. Hali Hafeman – 32:39
19. Kyla Christopher-Moody – 32:45
20. Sarah Biehl – 32:58

Full results.

Team USA for the 2025 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Race, after qualifying at the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent (l-to-r): Sydney Petersen, Jessica Brazeau, Hillary Allen, and Anna Gibson. Photo: Broken Arrow Skyrace/Howie Stern