Katelyn Tuohy receives Gatorade's Girls Cross Country Award

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Katelyn Tuohy said she was genuinely surprised Wednesday when she arrived at a running store to shop for new shoes and ran into Mary Cain. 

Gatorade arranged the moment in order to present Tuohy with its 2017-18 Girls Cross Country Athlete of the Year Award. 

It was the first meeting between Tuohy, who turned in a historic sophomore cross country season for North Rockland NY, and Cain, a prep phenom from nearby Bronxville who turned pro four years ago. 

"She's also from Section I," Tuohy said of Cain. "I definitely looked up to her a lot. When I was younger I remember seeing her on TV, running a 3K where she broke some record. I was watching it with my family and I remember thinking, 'I want to do that.'"

Tuohy became an instant hit as a varsity runner at North Rockland NY in the seventh grade and enjoyed a steady stream of successes both in New York and out of state in places like the Penn Relays and New Balance Nationals Outdoor. 

Six weeks after winning the NBNO title in the mile last June, Tuohy ran a 2-mile time trial and broke the 10-minute barrier. 

"I went up to my coach and told him 'Winning is a possibility this year,'" Tuohy recalled. 

North Rockland coach Brian Diglio evidently agreed and Tuohy's summer training got a bit more intense. She began to increase the tempo of her long run, started doing more strength training, supplemented with swimming, and accelerated her development. 

It didn't hurt to have an older brother, Patrick, as senior, who was also a serious runner. 

"I'm definitely super thankful for my brother being a runner (too)," Tuohy said. "In the summer, we would do our extra training together. It was great having him to push me."

Once the fall season hit, Tuohy left a trail or broken course records in her wake. 

One of the most jaw-dropping came at the Manhattan Invitational, where she broke the girls 2.5-kilometer record by more than 30 seconds. 

"My goal was to break the record (at Van Cortlandt Park)," she said. "To break it by the margin I did was a little bit of a surprise. And the whole country was a little bit in shock with that race."

The aftershocks continued -- with new highlights coming weekly -- until she reached Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, where she ran to one of the most dominant performances in the history of the girls championship race. 

The Gatorade award Wednesday was merely icing on the cake. And Tuohy is still eligible for two more seasons of high school running. 

"It means so much to me," Tuohy said of the award. "Looking at the names on the trophy and also other names like Peyton Manning and Alex Morgan, who have won it (in their sports), it means a lot."