Katelyn Tuohy talks NCAA Cross-Country title win, NC State's running-for-each other culture

Two days after she won her second individual NCAA Division I women's title and helped North Carolina State win its second straight women's cross-country team championship, Katelyn Tuohy was, well, running.

With the first indoor meet just two weeks away before her team will go on break, she and her teammates logged eight miles Monday morning, which stretched to about 10 with strides and a warm-down.

That, of course, is the kind of thing that helps create champions.

But during a Zoom call with reporters after that run, Tuohy, whose high-pressured past as a high school running star who made the cover of Sports Illustrated before her junior year at North Rockland High, indicated she and her teammates took an underdog mentality into Saturday's race.

That was true even though the defending-champion Wolfpack was ranked No. 1 in the country and Tuohy was undefeated.

And despite the fact that while entering the race as, for all purposes, the co-favorite with Florida's Parker Valby, Tuohy hadn't expected cross-country success to come to her so soon.

"I never thought I'd win as a junior. I thought maybe senior year," the 20-year-old 2020 North Rockland grad said.

But it hasn't been a straight launch to the top.

Tuohy had knee surgery prior to her arrival at NC State and a recently-tweaked hamstring had raised race analysts' concerns before Saturday's win.

"It's never easy," Tuohy said, referring to the "ups and downs" she and other runners encounter.

Still, she has managed to accelerate her timetable for success not just in cross-country but also in track and field.

In the spring, Tuohy won the women's outdoor DI 5,000-meter championship. Valby, who, like Tuohy was undefeated and both a conference and regional cross-country champion entering Saturday's race, was the runner-up in that track championship.

But for the lion's share of Saturday's race at Oklahoma State University it looked like Valby would be the one to climb to the top of the podium.

With a phenomenal late push, Tuohy who trailed Valby by 12 seconds with two kilometers left in the 6K race, beat Valby by more than three seconds.

"I definitely think having track speed helps with that finishing stretch in cross-country," said Tuohy.

And while the distance Tuohy had to make up was less than ideal, Valby's lead might have been a plus for Tuohy.

"Having Parker in front of me kind of gave me a target to try to chase," she explained. "It kind of made the race go by fast while I was kind of stuck in no man's land for a while."

Tuohy caught and passed Valby on the course's final uphill and gapped her there before finishing strong on a downhill.

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Forgoing college never a thought

Grabbed for an interview, it wasn't until after North Carolina State's fifth scoring runner, former high school friend and competitor, 2021 Tully graduate Brooke Rauber, had finished that Touhy learned NC State had repeated as team champion.

Tuohy, whose squad includes another competitor from her high school days, former 2019 Saratoga Springs grad Chelsea Chmiel, noted she carried some of the pressure she felt in high school running with her to college but indicated that has dissipated.

She credited her transition to college competition to her team's "great culture" and caring coaches and a caring administrative staff.

"And I think having a team that performs so well kind of takes the pressure off you individually," Tuohy said.

Saturday, NC State placed three runners in the top 15, including Chmiel in third.

Tuohy, who described her team receiving a "warm welcome" back at NC State that included cheerleaders, the band and administrators, said skipping college to turn pro out of high school was never a consideration.

As at North Rockland, she loves the team aspect of running for a school, especially what's found in cross-country.

"We all buy into that team aspect of the sport. ... We kind of go into every race with the mindset we're doing it for each other," said Tuohy, who calls her Wolfpack team a "really tight-knit group."

"I think just having teammates that I'm surrounded by every day kind of pushing me and inspiring me is kind of what fuels the fire," she said.

Her next race will be an indoor 5,000 meters in Boston in two weeks. During a break that follows she'll be with her family, including older brother, Patrick, a former Rockland cross-country champion and Fordham University runner, and ninth-grade brother, Ryan, who placed 27th out of 274 boys at the state high school Federation (public and private schools of all sizes) championships Saturday, not long after his sister's win.

Mom, Denise, went to Ryan's race (after watching the broadcast of Katelyn's) and her dad, also Patrick, went to Oklahoma to watch her.

She noted her brother, Patrick, has been running lately with Ryan, who has been "killing it" in races, and she plans to run with Ryan, too.

Besides expressing hope to be on a relay team and to performing well at championship meets, Tuohy was vague at this point about her objectives for the upcoming indoor season.

But it's clear with cross-country over, track is now her focal point.

"Once I accomplish one thing, it's kind of like, 'What's the next goal?' " she said.

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey. 

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Katelyn Tuohy interview: NC State junior talks NCAA title win