Katelyn Tuohy's last lap was amazing / Katleyn Tuohy Fastest Final 100 in field

If her priority is to make the team for Paris, I agree 100%. Running xc again is a waste of her time if Paris is her goal. However, her priority might be to return and defend her team and individual xc titles, and that’s a worthy priority too if that’s what matters most to her, but she won’t be as well positioned to do well next summer as if she were to start that process now.

Tuohy has nothing to prove at the NCAA level other than wanting to finish her degree. She needs to go pro. This year was great experience for her at the US championships and now she knows what to expect going into the Olympic Trials. She'll likely go pro this summer and begin her quest to make the team. It's worth the risk even if it's a small shot.

It may be time for Touhy to turn pro. Her training in college has been very productive and she has improved a lot. But it seemed like she took on more than she could handle this past season with too many races and distance medleys. I also think that she is better suited for the 5k/10k than for 1500/5k.

She did say turning pro after XC season is a possibility

It kind of sounded like she lost some confidence through outdoors and even in this race, mentioning stress over and over in the interview. Speculating here, but she may just not want to make any big changes right now.

Defending the XC title will be very hard. Aside from Valby, Doris Cherop has been recruited by Alabama and she is faster than Tuohy at the moment (14:40 5k road).

If I were her, (which very clearly I am not as a washed up old man who never amounted to much as a runner), I’d think been there done that in the NCAA and time to move forward and take on the next challenge in earnest. Why should KT stick around if Hicks left Stanford to become a pro. He too could have defended his title and maybe helped bring Stanford the team title for the first time in a long time, but he’s gone. However, KT seems very devoted to her school and teammates and coach, maybe in a way that runs counter to her best individual interest. Is this a fault or a virtue. Easy to see it as the latter.

Tuohy's "kick" was a joke. She went from 8th to 7th, wow!

Hicks is 20 seconds from world class. Tuohy is 40 seconds from world class.

I don’t see much upside from repeating as individual XC title, whereas moving on to pro training with her friends, Elly and Hanna, would give her the best shot at Paris. If she simply values her team contribution and leadership she can possibly do a 3-peat and pretty much forget about a significant shot at Paris. I don’t see how XC will help in that cause. IMHO she got off on the wrong foot during the beginning of outdoors and the mental snowball started to roll with a series of sub-par performances. KT is highly emotional and when things are going well (like indoors) she benefits disproportionately. Conversely, the opposite happened outdoors. I think this whole thing is a ‘mystery’ since sports, here in the US, dwells a lot on physical preparation. It may be scary but moving on could reset her emotional traps. I may be wrong, but I believe even some of her teammates are a bit jealous of her repeated victories over them (several of them are ex-HS superstars in their own right). Perhaps it’s just time to move on. I believe she already graduated and if not is only a couple of credits shy of graduation. If so, she’s already plenty competitive with the pro’s and would fit right in. It’s time to start Paris preparations in earnest to acclimate to new teammates and a new living environment. Altitude training/living beckons. Additionally, a more focused racing schedule against runners closer to her ability level will get her back to the progression she had during the last indoor season.

???

15:03 for a woman is a better result than 13:24 for a man, no? Certainly just as good.

Tuohy is in an interesting spot for next year. If she’s on track academically she could graduate very soon, likely right before the trials but imo I think if she’s serious about Paris, she should drop aIl that for now, go pro, and move to Flagstaff and train under Mike Smith. She has way more potential than the other two big non males in that group in Hiltz and Henes. She will be a contender for top 3 if she can get a year of that training. I think ultimately she will come back at least for cross but she should go pro now.

Another collegian Sam Gilman from Air Force had the fastest last 200 on the men’s side (26.4) to place 6th in the race. He was 14th in the NCAA 5k and places half a second behind Teare and Klecker a month later.

What are the world records?

What to make of a big finishing kick to a 7th place finish?

Clearly she had more left in the tank. If so, why did she wait until the last 100 meters to empty it?

I'm just a hobby jogger, but when I finish able to kick stronger than usual at the end, I almost always cross the finish line thinking, "I felt very strong coming in, but damnit, I could have run faster."

Perhaps it was not the lack of ability, but a lack of confidence to go out at a harder pace.

Having trouble finding video of KT's last lap. No biggie if there isn't any, though.

haappy to know shes coming back! shes got unfinished business in the ncaa! she loves XC more than anything

This shows that she was sandbagging the race just to have "an impressive finish"....she even mentioned that in her interview. I am much more impressed with the other women who ran because they WENT for it bravely. This is not the first time I've seen Tuohy run like this. I am again not impressed, why do I care how fast her lap last was off of a slower than her capability pace? We've also seen she doesn't really have a kick when she needs it (ie the 1500m finals at NCAA).

It seems you have a selective memory. Did she not leave Parker Valby behind in the last 600 of a 5000 and also at the cross country championship? Did she not leave the field behind in the last few laps when she won the 5000 and 3000 at NCAA Indoor championship? Did she not pass several runners in thelast 400 when she finished 2nd in the 5000 and 3000 the year before? Why anyone cares about how fast this last lap was is a different question.