Katelyn Tuohy (born March 18, 2002) is an American middle- and long-distance runner.
She is a four-time individual NCAA Division I champion. In high school Tuohy won five Gatorade Player of the Year awards and was the 2018 Track & Field News High School Girls Athlete of the Year.
Early life and background
Katelyn Tuohy comes from suburban Rockland County, New York. She has two brothers: a younger brother, Ryan, and an older brother, Patrick, also a successful cross country runner for North Rockland High School, who now runs track at Fordham University.
At only ten years old, while running with her parents, Patrick and Denise, Tuohy was spotted as a potentially remarkable talent by her coach-to-be, Brian Diglio.
Early career
Encouraged by her family, she began setting age-group records in the 7th grade, retiring marks set by earlier high school phenom Mary Cain.
2017
Tuohy attended and competed for the North Rockland High School Red Raiders. In the 2017 Cross Country season during the Manhattan College XC Invite, in the Bronx, New York, she took 32 seconds off the historic Van Cortlandt Park course record with a time of 13:21 for the 2.5 mile / 4 kilometer event. She then later won the Nike National cross country (NXN) championship on December 2nd, 2017 as a sophomore with a 5K time of 16:44.7 to cap an undefeated season. Tuohy won the event by 40 seconds, trimming 12 seconds off the course record, despite cold and muddy conditions. The Rockland County legislature honored her victory, declaring December 19th as "Katelyn Tuohy Day."
2018
On January 20, Tuohy set the U.S. national junior and high school 5000-meter record, when she ran 15:37.12, bettering the time of 15:45.46 set by Mary Cain in 2013. In May, she became the fastest US high school outdoor 3200-meter runner of all-time, running 9:47.88. In June, she ran the second fastest U.S. outdoor time ever in the country by a high school girl for 3000 meters with a time of 9:09.71. Also in June, on the 17th at the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina, Tuohy won the mile by over 15 seconds, breaking Polly Plumer's 36-year high school outdoor mile record with a 4:33.87. On September 22, at the Ocean State Invitational, Tuohy ran the fastest American girls cross country 5K ever with a time of 16:06.87, lowering the course record by 88 s. Her time clipped almost 17 s from Katie Rainsberger's 2016 best-ever high school girls' standard on any course, running faster than all but one of over 1000 high school boys running the sandy course that day. On October 19, her 16:45.4 broke her own Bowdoin course record, set in 2017 while winning the state federation championship. The next fastest girl ran 19:07.9. On December 1, despite her missing her state section championship race with knee tendonitis, a few weeks earlier, she repeated as Nike's Cross Nationals Individual Champion. Notwithstanding muddy conditions, she set a new course record time of 16:37.8. Tuohy's remarkable potential had fostered New York Times speculation on her future. Her high school coach, Brian Diglio, who was also her Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher, endeavored to keep Tuohy in check while guarding her progress. “My role so far has been to try to put the brakes on, so she doesn’t do too much,” he said. “She has an unbelievable work ethic; I’ve never seen anything like it." He feels her academic diligence is as important as her athletic accomplishments. She finished the 2017–18 school year with a 4.59 GPA.
2019
On January 26th in New York City (NYC), she broke Mary Cain's best high school indoor time of 9:02.10 with a time of 9:01.81, while finishing third in the 3000 meter against seven pros. That gave her four of the fastest eight ever indoor times by a high school girl for the distance. She competed in the New Balance Indoor Two Mile in NYC on March 10th, and won with a time of 9:51.05, making her the second fastest ever U.S. high school girl, indoors or out. Consideration was given to have her competing exclusively in open competition, rather than in high school events. It was thought that experiencing stiffer competition from professional runners might be expected to benefit her regarding the possibility of Olympic Trials training to follow in 2020.
In her first major race of the season, Tuohy won the Great American Cross Country race in North Carolina, 13 seconds under the course record. On December 7, she became the first athlete, boy or girl, to become a three-time NXN champion, winning the race in 17:18.4. This was the closest margin of victory for not only Tuohy but in NXN history. After her last high school race, she underwent knee surgery.