Katelyn Tuohy Wows Huge Crowd At Holmdel Park, Says 'I Could Have Run Harder'

By Brian Towey of DyeStat

Throughout a long day of racing at Holmdel Park for the New Balance Shore Coaches Invitational, nobody seemed to want to leave until they had seen Katelyn Tuohy. 

Thousands of cross country athletes and spectators stayed until Tuohy's late afternoon race in expectation of her chasing after the course record on New Jersey's most hallowed ground. 

Tuohy answered the expectations, ripping through Holmdel Park in 16:21 -- smashing the the 2010 course record of 17:27.0 set by Highland NJ's Megan Venables. 

"I felt like I could have run harder," Tuohy said. "Going in I had no idea what to expect. I went out conservatively because the first mile is basically uphill. But the last mile is downhill, so no matter what happened, I had that."

It was a jaw-dropping performance. 

Tuohy, a recod-breaking junior from North Rockland NY, passed under a rope and left for a cool down to escape the crush of adoring admirers at the finish line. 

"It's definitely cool, because all these people motivate me," Tuohy said. "But I'm disappointed because I had to say no to some of these people (who wanted selfies). ... I want to be a role model for them."

Tuohy split 5:23 for the first mile, which goes uphill. She charged through the second mile in 5:23 as well, setting up a long drive to the finish as a massive crowd, armed with cell phones, sprinted to catch a glimpse of her at the finish line. 

They all knew they were witnessing history. 

"Going in I was pretty excited because it's considered to be one of the top courses," Tuohy said. "It wasn't as hard as a lot of people told me it was going to be. I think that's because we've been running a lot of hard courses, like Bowdoin (in New York). We've also been doing a lot of hills in workouts."

Tuohy, the U.S. high school record holder in mile and the 2-mile (outdoors), is one of the greatest high school female runners in prep history.

Across a total of seven races of varsity boys, nobody broke 16 minutes. Just 17 runners out of more than 500 varsity boys ran as fast or faster than Tuohy.