Decker is the only female high school runner that any of us outside the US has ever heard of. I saw her beating top international athletes in the early 70's. The other female runners named here are merely high school runners. Living in the US you won't get that.
Please somebody who has more knowledge than me list your top 10 all time HS females with 1 sentence description. I see Cain, Trotter, Tuohy, Decker and maybe a few others scattered throughout. Fairchild? Isn't there a girl at Dartmouth who won multiple titles? I am really interested in something as basic as saying 3 x Footlocket champ and never ran in college. Or Ran 4:40 mile and went on to run 4:10 1500. Thanks.
Wasn't Mary Decker world class by age 14 or 15?
whatareyoulookingfor wrote:
considering her dominating xc times and national records in track events, it really is not a discussion.
based on her times, she is not.
According to Wikipedia,
In her early teens, Decker was already recognized as a world-class runner. Unable to attend the 1972 Olympics as she was too young, the pigtailed 89 pounds 14-year-old nicknamed "Little Mary Decker," won international acclaim in 1973 with a win in the 800 meters at a US-Soviet meet in Minsk, beating the reigning Olympic silver medalist, Nijolė Sabaitė.
By the end of 1972, Decker was ranked first in the United States and fourth in the world in the 800 meters. In 1973 she gained her first world record, running an indoor mile in 4:40.1. By 1974, Decker was the world Indoor record holder with 2:02.4 for 880 yards, and 2:01.8 for 800 meters.
Basically, beat the Olympic silver medalist and was #4 in the world at age 14, set her first world record at age 15, and broke a WR at a different distance at age 16. The only caveat I see is that this was the early to mid-70s. Women's distance running was NOTHING compared to what it is today. Hell, I could have won the Boston Marathon if we go back far enough. This is not to discredit Decker at all; she was absolutely incredible. But times have definitely changed.
Decker, Cain, Fairchild are all great but they still don't beat Katelyn Tuohy in the title of the greatest female distance runner in US history. Tuohy owns the most course records ever as a female high school distance runner, and owns a lot of age-group records by retiring the marks of Cain without racing outside high school level.
If you're gonna argue that they have international success, well Katelyn Tuohy could have easily gotten success internationally too if she raced cross country abroad and she can easily medal at NACAC U23 Championships like Cain but Tuohy preferred to be a normal American high school girl running high school meets for the goal of doing the best for her team.
She achieved great things in HS and is achieving great things at college, people thought her career was over after HS. Tuohy is one of the prominent faces in the sport for many years now, and I believe that it will continue to be like this till she steps on the professional level.
Katelyn Tuohy is cut different, she will surely achieve more success in the years to come. Natural talent, phenomenal work ethic, unending drive to succeed and competitiveness will carry her through any obstacle and will soon carry our country against the fastest runners in the world.
IMO.
I knew that people would continue down the path of talking about onerunner and debating about why other people's top choice really shouldn't be 1st. Can someone please just provide their top 10 list with an accomplishment and what happened after HS. I know there are people on this site who could do this in a minute. I don't have enough knowledge. So please, please someone?
mansybr wrote:
Decker, Cain, Fairchild are all great but they still don't beat Katelyn Tuohy in the title of the greatest female distance runner in US history. Tuohy owns the most course records ever as a female high school distance runner, and owns a lot of age-group records by retiring the marks of Cain without racing outside high school level.
XC course records are pretty meaningless, there's no assureness that the course is the same year to year.
Mike Split wrote:
I knew that people would continue down the path of talking about onerunner and debating about why other people's top choice really shouldn't be 1st. Can someone please just provide their top 10 list with an accomplishment and what happened after HS. I know there are people on this site who could do this in a minute. I don't have enough knowledge. So please, please someone?
Decker was clearly the most accomplished mid distance runner (though her 800 record has been broken). But she did what she did 50 years ago and was world class.
Focusing on distance (3200 and XC)
Whittling a list down to 10 would be pretty arbitrary I think. Milesplit shows 31 girls who went sub 10 in (outdoor) 3200 and 5 more sub 10 in (outdoor) 2 mile not on 3200 list. The lists start in 2000 so do not include Fairchild, for example.
But, off the top of my head, in no particular order. Not including those still in HS.
Melody Fairchild - 9:55.9 in hs w/o competition and poor track I believe. Won FL and still holds Balboa Park 5K record. In college she faced some issues and had no real great accomplishments.
Amber Trotter - had the dominant FL win, but does not show up on the all time 3200/2 mile lists. Did not see college results.
Natalie Cook - dominant RL and FL wins, 15:25 5,000, 9:48 3200 off to good start in college
Katelyn Tuohy - 3 x NXN XC wins, 15:37 5,000 w/o competition at age 15, 9:47 for 3200 shortly after. Doing well going into 3rd year in college. Broke many Cuffe records.
Aisling Cuffe - dominant FL win, 9:54 3200, did well at Stanford (won NCAA 5000, high in XC, 4th in USATF 5000)
Jenna Hutchins - dominant RL win, 15:34 5,000, good 3200/2 mile but not on above lists, off to a slow start in college
Claudia Lane - 2x FL winner, 9:57 3200 but developed issues in college.
Kim Mortensen - 9:48 3200 but had injuries in college
Jordan Hasay - 2x FL winner, 9:52 3200, very good in college but not that many championship wins from what I can see
I looked at Jennie Simpson but she did not have the HS accomplishments but clearly went on to very great things. Same for Mollie Huddle.
No doubt I overlooked some.
Maybe Katie Rainsberger and Brie Oakley belong on this list for the dominant NXN wins, and Brie had 9:51 3200. Katie did well in college while Brie has had issues.
Disagree. Being able to break multiple course records on some of the most battle tested, well-regarded XC courses in the sport cannot simply be ignored. I get that conditions can be different year to year (weather, etc.) but to shatter records on courses that have been run for years/decades is absolutely meaningful.
There is a comment on another thread about the Wisconsin course running short a few years ago. So if a dedicated course that hosted nationals a few years ago can change, any course can change. Our high school course has been on the same course for 30 years but it changes by 20 meters every year. Our NXR course changes by 20 meters every year also.
But in that case there was convincing statistical proof that the course was physically altered that was verified by the university itself. If you have evidence that VCP, Bowdoin Park, Holmdel, Sunken Meadow, Ocean State, NXN etc. were similarly altered OK, but have not seen any. It was discussed every time the record was broken.
If you go to a track or XC meet and ask who between Decker, Fairchild, Cain and Tuohy is the greatest HS distance runner, the answer you would commonly get is Katelyn Tuohy.
Scores would not be even close. Try it.
astro wrote:
But in that case there was convincing statistical proof that the course was physically altered that was verified by the university itself. If you have evidence that VCP, Bowdoin Park, Holmdel, Sunken Meadow, Ocean State, NXN etc. were similarly altered OK, but have not seen any. It was discussed every time the record was broken.
Bill Meylan would no doubt know of this. I think VCP may have been altered or perhaps improved.