NY State 1500 Meter Run Championship:
1 Sammy Watson 11 Rush-Henrietta-1 4:22.09
2 Katelyn Tuohy 8 North Rockland-1 4:24.36
3 Sage Hurta 12 Hamilton-2 4:25.29
Super performance by Katelyn Tuohy (video on NY MileSplit). Sammy Watson has already run 2:03.06 for 800 meters as a high school junior, won the Penn Relays and Indoor Nationals Mile races (4:47.49 at NBIN) and run 52.69 for 400 meters.
The girl who finished 3rd (Sage Hurta) won the NY State 800 meter championship the previous day (2:08.57 PR) and her 4:25.69 in the 1500 race was also a PR. Hurta is one of the top recruits who will be attending the University of Colorado in the fall. She finished 10th at Footlocker Nationals, and she did win a NY State Class D cross country title as a 7th-grader (she seems to have turned out just fine).
Katelyn Tuohy is getting attention for a reason. Anybody who thinks she should not be competing at this level is "mis-informed". In her many video interviews, she seems happy with her progress and fits in nicely with her teammates and surroundings.
Katelyn Tuohy showed exceptional track talent as 7th-grader. Switched from soccer to cross country as an 8th-grader and helped North Rockland finish 10th at NXN Nationals (she was 13 years old at that time according to newspaper articles).
In an 8th-grade comparison, she is ahead of Mary Cain in terms of race times with one exception - Mary Cain's fastest 800m was a 2:11.59 relay split (Tuohy's is 2:12.73). Mary Cain did drop her 1500 time from 4:42 to 4:17 from 8th to 9th grade. Cain also lowered her 800 time to 2:03.74 in a relay as a freshman and ran a 55 second 400 meter race (according to Cain herself, she has never run a faster 400 to this day, not even in practice - what does that say about Mary Cain and not getting any better?).