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Katelyn Tuohy Overcomes Pressure And Nerves To Capture Second Straight NXN Title

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DyeStat.com   Dec 2nd 2018, 8:47am
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Tuohy Overcomes Nerves To Win Second Title

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

PORTLAND -- Katelyn Tuohy's junior season held challenges that she couldn't have imagined going into the year, but perhaps the biggest was living up to the bounty of achievements that she put together in 2017. 

The sensational runner from North Rockland NY, in some ways, was competing with herself Saturday in the Nike Cross Nationals final at Glendoveer Golf Course. 

The bar Tuohy set in 2017 with a course record time of 16:44.7 created some moments of discomforting nerves Saturday morning as she set out to become the first back-to-back champion since Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley CA in 2011-12. 

"I definitely went out way too fast, got pretty excited, and paid for it toward the end," Tuohy said. "I was more happy with how I finished mentally than with my time."

The time was still a course record. On a day when the course ran faster overall than a year ago, Tuohy shaved seven seconds off her 2017 time and ran 16:37.8. 

But after going out fast and ripping away from the pack early, Tuohy could feel New York rival Kelsey Chmiel of Saratoga Springs creeping up closer late in the race.

"When we came around one of those loops, I saw Kelsey getting close and it worried me a little," Tuohy said. 

Much like 2017, Tuohy made headlines during the regular season by re-writing the course records of some famed courses in New York and New Jersey. But a late-season bout of tendinitis in her knee also buckled some of her momentum and caused a disruption in her routine. 

"When that happened, I thought my season was going to be over," Tuohy said. 

It was jarring. She missed a few days' worth of training and one meet. 

But she bounced back quickly. 

"It was not very scary for me, or the trainer," North Rockland coach Brian Diglio said. "It wasn't that serious. But Katelyn is, as a lot of the top runners are, so good genetically that she's not used to feeling the usual aches and pains that we all do. So I'm not trying to minimize it because it definitely bothered her. It was a stressful time, especially for her, because that was not her norm."

Diglio challenged Tuohy early in the week with a harder than usual tune-up workout designed to show her that she could trust her knee and know that she was all the way back to full health. 

But the pressure to perform at a level superior to 2017 was real. 

"It's a lot to live up to," Diglio said. "Winning a national championship is a major accompishment and the only thing mayber harder than that is winning a second one. We learned that this year."

Tuohy finished 17.8 seconds ahead of Chmiel, who capped her high school career by placing second for the second straight year and top five for four straight years.

"This year I just wanted to stay confident and stay relaxed for the first couple miles and then the last mile really push it as hard as I could go," said Chmiel, who ran 16:54.8 for second place. "I felt pretty good."

Chmiel was 12 seconds up on third-place finisher Taylor Ewert of Beavercreek OH, the nation's top young racewalker as well as a national-class talent in cross country and the steeplechase. 

Ewert finished in 17:06.7 and NXR Heartland champion Emily Covert of Minneapolis Washburn MN was fourth in 17:10.2.

New Yorkers Claire Walters of Fayetteville-Manlius and Brooke Rauber placed fifth and sixth, giving the Empire State four or the top six finishers overall. 

One of the meet's biggest surprises came from freshman Charlotte Bednar, who attends a small private boarding school in New Jersey called The Hun School. After placing fourth in the NXR Northeast regional last week, she was 12th in the national final, making her the lone freshman to earn All-America honors. 



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