Katelyn Tuohy is NOT as good as Mary Cain (not yet)

Let's hope Tuohy at 22 will be better than Cain at 22 and not bother too much about the time in between. The obsession with teenage records is often not fruitful and for each Zola Budd one probably has three or more Mary Cains with amazing times at 15-17 and not much afterwards.

Jo72 wrote:

Let's hope Tuohy at 22 will be better than Cain at 22 and not bother too much about the time in between. The obsession with teenage records is often not fruitful and for each Zola Budd one probably has three or more Mary Cains with amazing times at 15-17 and not much afterwards.

There's nothing that can be done to avoid the possibility of performance decline in female athletes as they get older, so you may as well enjoy it while it lasts. If I were Tuohy I would be training as hard as possible right now and smashing every record in the books. Just do it. Swoosh.

Everyone has a limited time to be good. Some girls only have a year or 2. Many guys have only a few years. Most d1 runners are done after college. Some guys like Slagowski peak in HS.

So you are saying that Mary Cain was going to be as good as she is now no matter what, and had nothing to do with her decisions?

June 12, 2016 when Katelyn was 14 years old and fearlessly raced Sammy Watson.

Katelyn Tuohy has always been a great runner. Fiercely competitive, determined, disciplined and hard working.

She is the most exciting runner ever.

I think Tuohy is demonstrating she is likely the greatest female Girls HS XC runner to date. She also already has the fastest HS times in various track events for HS athletes only (ie no pros or college in the races). Whether she ever matches Cains times in the 1,000 or mile is another question as she does not seem to have the raw speed. Barring injury she should continue to drop her times in the 2 mile and 5K and I could see her breaking 4:30 in the mile this (Junior in HS) year. After that, who knows? She will need to learn how to run in competitive fields as opposed to just running away from the field as she does now. But the raw talent has always been there.

https://www.milesplit.com/videos/78251/katelyn-tuohy-7th-grader-after-sub-5-mile

https://www.nbnationalsin.com/eprofile.php?event_id=1164&do=videos&video_id=148904

tuohycain wrote:

I see many people saying how Katelyn Tuohy is the greatest ever, while she is absolutely amazing and a historic talent, she does not measure up to what Mary Cain was, at least not yet.

Katelyn's PR in the 3200m is 9:47 outdoor. Cain's PR in the FULL two mile was 9:38, INDOORS.

Katelyn's mile PR is 4:33 outdoor. Cain's mile PR is 4:24, again INDOORS. The only race in which Katelyn surpassed her was the indoor 5000m where she ran 15:37.

Cain also has the national record in the 800m in 1:59, which Katelyn has run nowhere near. So on the high school level I'd say Katelyn is not equivalent to Mary Cain, although she may be by the time she graduates.

But also, maybe it's just Katelyn is more of a 5000 (or even 10,000) runner while Cain was geared towards 2 mile and less

Also regarding the 5k record. Mary Cain was literally just running to get a qualifying time. Not saying she would've run much faster. But still that's something. Even though I usually don't like to give credit for something that didn't happen.

Also as a junior Mary Cain would've been the fastest runner in the NCAA in the 800 & 1500. If Tuohy was to do something in world junior cross that could definitely work in her favor to be in the same conversation as Cain.

It's hard to compare because they specialize in different events.

It's a little easier to be a phenom in the middle distance events in high school because they don't require as much volume of training as a 5k. It is more speed based, meaning fast twitch muscles and that's largely genetic.

To run as fast as Katelyn has in the 5k at such a young age is very rare because 5k fitness generally requires years and even decades of building up endurance.

What are your PRs?

As pointed out above, nobody is saying she is the best female middle distance runner of all time. She is, however. the greatest HS cross country runner of all time. It isn't hard to compare Cain and Tuohy in XC as they are both from Section 1 in NY and have run all the same courses.

Cain was on the Salazar Secret Sauce, so all of her times have an asterisk.

Yes, Cain was the better athlete. Way more speed and range. Tuohy is a mega-mileage burn-out candidate.

They should concentrate on long term plans eg Olympics, not being top school runner.

Also, how come these threads gushing about school athletes are always about little girls? Doesn't this strike anyone as a little bit odd? I can't remember a SINGLE THREAD about a schoolboy sensation. Or video links featuring him.

If a sophomore boy runs 3:59 this year, he will get Cain type of attention. If a sophomore boy runs 14 flat this year, he will get Tuohy type of attention. Guys develop later. It’s not that people are more interested in girls.

Stay focussed wrote:

Also, how come these threads gushing about school athletes are always about little girls? Doesn't this strike anyone as a little bit odd? I can't remember a SINGLE THREAD about a schoolboy sensation. Or video links featuring him.

Really? Ask Alan Webb about that.

Lt. Joe Kenda wrote:

Stay focussed wrote:

Also, how come these threads gushing about school athletes are always about little girls? Doesn't this strike anyone as a little bit odd? I can't remember a SINGLE THREAD about a schoolboy sensation. Or video links featuring him.

Really? Ask Alan Webb about that.

Or Grant Fisher or Drew Hunter or Lukas Verzbicas

Lt. Joe Kenda wrote:

Stay focussed wrote:

Also, how come these threads gushing about school athletes are always about little girls? Doesn't this strike anyone as a little bit odd? I can't remember a SINGLE THREAD about a schoolboy sensation. Or video links featuring him.

Really? Ask Alan Webb about that.

Wow, if that was a troll post it was a great one. Sometimes it felt like LRC should have been named alanwebb.com

Cain is a mid-d runner; Tuohy skews towards the longer distances. Kinda like Webb (mid-d) and Ritz (5k and up)

Jo72 wrote:

Let's hope Tuohy at 22 will be better than Cain at 22 and not bother too much about the time in between. The obsession with teenage records is often not fruitful and for each Zola Budd one probably has three or more Mary Cains with amazing times at 15-17 and not much afterwards.

Exactly.