Historians, who is the greatest female HS distance runner in US history? Could it already be Katelyn Tuohy?

Did anyone notice that the title of this post was the greatest FEMALE High School distance runner?

The question was not about the male competitors. Just saying.

And I do agree about Zola Budd being a great talent. She was. There are likely also some Kenyan young ladies in the mix if we are expanding the question beyond the borders of the USA, but who knows their real age?

Zola Budd is probably the greatest high school runner ever, male or female. What she ran was astonishing, but since she's not American like us we don't usually give her her due due to lack of being able to relate to a South African.

(Did I just correctly employ "her her due due" in a sentence?) haha nice

Where does Kim Gallagher rank among US High School phenoms?

Fred Gwynne wrote:

Where does Kim Gallagher rank among US High School phenoms?

2:00.07

4:16.6

Medalist wrote:

Fred Gwynne wrote:

Where does Kim Gallagher rank among US High School phenoms?

2:00.07

4:16.6

And 16:00 3-mile as a 9th grader!

UCI XC wrote:

Is this conversation about U.S. high school kids only? Otherwise: Budd is hard to argue against.

At age 17:

• 1500m -- 4:01.81 (still the record for 17-year-olds and younger, and for 18-year-olds for that matter)

• 3000m -- 8:37.5

• 5000m -- 15:01.83 (outright world record, beating Decker's 15:08.26, which she ran at age 23)

Touhy: 4:14.45 / 9:05.26 / 15:37.12

Cain: 4:04.62 / 8:58.48 / 15:45.46

Decker: 2:01.8 / 4:40.1i (1M)

Consider this all-time USA HS list, and then Budd's 8:37.5 in 1984 at age 17.

9:00.16i Alexa Efraimson (Camas, WA) 2014

9:00.62 Katie Rainsberger (Air Force Academy, CO) 2016

9:02.10i Mary Cain (Bronxville, NY) 2013

9:05.26i Katelyn Tuohy (North Rockland, NY) 2018

And the year before, at 16, Budd ran 8:39.0. And her best event was arguably cross-country.

Touhy did run her 15:37 at age 15. Let's hope she's the exception and avoids the early-peak syndrome.

Given the nature of HS girls running shes going to have to complete HS for us to know that she can even get better. I hear she is only running about 45 Mpw but still there are so many girls who fizzle out.

I seriously would not count world/ US rankings as a reason to say someone is better because Decker in HS now would not be world ranked so you guys should stop mentioning that same goes for Boys runners. If there was a Genzebe Dibaba then or even a Shannon Rowbury/Simpson for Decker to race she would be an afterthought.

Cain is the superior runner still. More success on the track than Tuohy and Efraimson.

Times comparisons

1:59 Cain

4:03 Efraimson

4:04 Cain

Decker?

8:58/9:38 Cain

9:00 efraimson not sure is she was HS age but definitely Junior aged

9:05 Tuohy

15:37 tuohy

15:45 Cain to add context If I remember correctly Cain was simply running this to get a qualifier. Correct me if I am wrong.

Not too sure about Deckers times in HS. but from what I have read on this forum Cain is superior still.

Also to chime in on the boys convo. I don't see anyone of the Goat contenders getting as close to bekele as Dathan Ritzenhein did in XC an we all know Bekele is the best XC runner of all time. I also would still insert Webb in the Goat convo. his 800-2 miles are a hard to beat.

My personal boys list would be

Verzbicas 8:29 NB indoor triple Fl/NXN double 3:59

webb 3: 53 1:46

ryun 3:55

fernandez insane doubles and xc dominance

lindgren 2nd best xc guy

ritz best xc guy

virgin

rupp?

Has nobody even mentioned that Mary Decker broke the World Record when she was in 10th grade!?

Yes, Mary Decker broke a weak indoor world record in 9th grade. Mary Cain's record-setting binge was really more impressive.

But here is the thing, Mary Decker was never a national champion or made an Olympic team while she was in HS. Her compartment syndrome really hampered her as she grew/aged. And can we also note that she is a proven doper. Just saying.

Nobody is refuting the record of Lynn Bjorklund as the GOAT HS distance runner.

run with the wom wrote:

Yes, Mary Decker broke a weak indoor world record in 9th grade.

Yeah. It was so incredibly weak that it was only broken by a HS senior last year.

Dweeb

exactly. not even a discussion at this point. she avoided lane at XC nationals. if you avoid racing the top girl then you are not the GOAT

Tuohy "avoiding Lane" at Footlocker was the happiest day of Lane's running career. lol

yesstiles wrote:

ric flair woo wrote:

Galen Rupp shattered his 13:17 3 mile mark bro....

What's that 3-mile time?

rupp ran 13:37 for 5k....so unless that last 200m was in sub 20, id say he spanked lindgrens record that day

run with the wom wrote:

Yes, Mary Decker broke a weak indoor world record in 9th grade. Mary Cain's record-setting binge was really more impressive.

But here is the thing, Mary Decker was never a national champion or made an Olympic team while she was in HS. Her compartment syndrome really hampered her as she grew/aged. And can we also note that she is a proven doper. Just saying.

Nobody is refuting the record of Lynn Bjorklund as the GOAT HS distance runner.

Mary Cain never made an Olympic team in high school either, or any other time. She did win a national indoor title in the 1500 in a race neither Simpson nor Rowbury entered.

Mary Decker would have almost certainly made the Olympic team in 1972 had she been allowed to compete. But at age 14 she was too young to be eligible. And of course in 1976 she was injured, and she obviously had to chance to be on a WC team until 1983.

Mary Cain won the 3000 at World Juniors, which may not be the Olympics but deserves a lot of credit.

Cain/Lindren for sure. Big range. Big stages.

Webb was a lot like Ryun and we got to see what it would be like in the modern era to have somebody close to a Ryun competing. We've had nothing like a Lindgren in the modern era. This site would be going nuts if a high school 5Ker was a routine threat to the world's best.

ric flair woo wrote:

yesstiles wrote:

What's that 3-mile time?

rupp ran 13:37 for 5k....so unless that last 200m was in sub 20, id say he spanked lindgrens record that day

Can you tell me what Rupp's 3-mile HS Record is?

Mary Todd Lincoln -- GOAT!

Just a high schooler (Abe had robbed the cradle to marry her -- common in them thar days), she won gold in an August 1862 mile grudge match dubbed "The Second Battle of Bull" Run due to all the trash talking in the weeks leading up to the race. Mary soundly defeated her older rival, Mrs. R. E. Lee, who had prevailed by a hair in their previous battle, a July 1861 head-to-head meeting on the same track.

Young Mary credits her Nike Vaporfly Elites for giving her the edge on her opponent in '62. Her mile time was a then-record 10:23.43.

She then went on to set a world shot put record the same day...really a cannonball put back then...and switched allegience to that event for the remainder of her athletic career. She was known for her explosive release.

Avocado's Number wrote:

Decker ran a 4:37.4 mile when she was fourteen years old.

Do you have a source for this? I've been looking and the fastest I can find is 4:40i.

Ummm...ever heard of Jordan Hasay?

this. while we throw around words like "debatable" for good reason, at least to me there's no question that tuohy is nowhere near decker or cain (and maybe others), at least not yet. but it may not even be relevant that tuohy is only a sophomore; with girls, that too often is an advantage, not a detriment. i was college teammates with polly plumer, whose record tuohy broke, and i'm sure she'd be quick to point out that tuohy is only starting that rollercoaster ride that is women's distance running...

no one should care how many miles tuohy's doing, or that she's only running against h.s. competition (these are choices for the most part)--the only way in my mind debatable comes into the argument is because we can't transport tuohy or cain back in time and see what they could do on the same indoor tracks where mary ran 2:01 and 4:40...

that's my story and i'm sticking to it,

cush

Little Miss Mary Decker has her beat by a mile!!!