Katelyn Tuohy breaks indoor collegiate women's mile mark, Carmel's Holt 2nd in men's mile

NEW YORK — She called it "kind of a flashback to high school."

"The glory days," she added with a laugh.

And Saturday at The Armory in northern Manhattan, Katelyn Tuohy, who owned so many races at the fabled indoor track and field complex while a North Rockland High runner, added to all that past glory.

The 20-year-old, who holds multiple national high school records, broke the nearly 14-year-old women's collegiate indoor mile mark of 4:25.91 by clocking 4:24.26 during the Dr. Sander Invitational.

That was good for third place in a 13-runner field made up largely of professionals.

Tuohy and the women who edged her are now Nos. 1-3 in the world this year in the indoor women's mile.

No. 1 is Tokyo 10,000-meter Olympian and former University of Wisconsin runner Alicia Monson, won took over that spot, winning Saturday in 4:23.55. Fellow pro Whittni Morgan, 26, a former BYU runner, finished in 4:23.6 in second.

Both women were in a three-person pack with Tuohy that broke from the rest of the field and they clearly appreciated the younger runner's efforts, seeking her out immediately after the race, embracing and talking to her.

With a mile being 1,609 meters, the race also gave Tuohy the women's national collegiate 1,500-meter mark at 4:06.49. The former mark was 4:09.77.

The last year has been almost storybook for Tuohy, who earlier in the week was named cross-country's National Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Last spring, Tuohy won the D-I women's national 5,000-meter championship.

Then this fall, she won the national women's Division I cross-country title, helping NC State win its second consecutive NCAA D-I national women's cross-country team title.

Tuohy watched her ninth-grade brother, Ryan, run to silver at The Armory Friday night in the Rockland County Championships, where North Rockland won both the girls and boys team titles.

Before her race Saturday, she worked out with her older brother, Patrick, another former North Rockland and Fordham University runner.

Of her return and race, she said, "It was so much fun. ... It's been great so far. This is like a cherry on top."

It was unclear how Touhy would run, largely because Saturday marked only her second time on a track in competition this school year. She ran a personal-best time in Boston at 5,000 meters in early December but hadn't competed since.

But Tuohy appeared relaxed and confident from the outset.

"I wanted to run around (4:)24. That was the goal," she said.

"My goal was just to stay stuck to Alicia. ... I was trying to dig deep and go as fast as I could," Tuohy said.

And she had a passionate cheering section that included family.

Despite the thousands of people on hand, one voice stood out.

"I heard my dad every lap," she said.

Holt earns Millrose invite

Tuohy will be back at The Armory on February 11 to run the women's 3,000-meter race at the historic Millrose Games. And she'll have local company.

Eric Holt, whose track career has been full of ups and downs since he graduated from Carmel High in 2013, but has been going in a decided positive direction the last couple of years, earned an invitation to Millrose after finishing second in Saturday's men's invitational mile.

Holt, who has run 3:54.09 outdoors, clocked a personal-best indoor time of 3:56.58, finishing only behind Adidas runner Drew Hunter (3:55.57).

The 27-year-old Holt, who ran for SUNY-Binghamton after Carmel, may be one of the most under-reported stories in track.

He probably would not be posting times putting him alongside the country's best middle-distance runners and, for that matter, might not even be competing at all if not for COVID.

Losing his job due to the pandemic, he returned home.

"I was literally doing nothing with my life," he said.

And so he trained and trained some more and the results have been impressive.

Holt captured the men's 1,500-meter title at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association Open Championships last summer and was fourth at 1,500 meters at the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships.

Holt, who's still seeking professional sponsorship but runs for the locally-based Empire Elite Track Club that trains at Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, was among Saturday's race leaders from the starting gun.

"I came here to win. Second, I guess, is the next best thing," he said.

Holt making his mark: Carmel's Eric Holt wins 1,500 at international championship in Bahamas

The country's best:Katelyn Tuohy, former North Rockland phenom runner, is NCAA DI cross-country champion

Other locals

Katie Turk, the 2021 Carmel grad who now runs for the University of Maryland, realized a long-held goal by breaking five minutes in the mile for the first time ever with a 4:59.57 clocking in the women's collegiate mile.

That was good for 17th place out of 32 starters.

Reyvon Grey, who starred at Beacon (Class of 2016) and then at LSU, jumped 25-2 for third place in the men's invitational long jump.

Running for Columbia University, Chris Balthazar, a Fordham Prep grad, who's from New Rochelle, was sixth (season-best 22.01) out of 38 in the men's collegiate 200.

Syracuse University's Elijah Mallard, who graduated last spring from Washingtonville High, ran 48.63 for sixth out of 40 in the men's collegiate 400.

Albany's Nicardo Blake, a 2019 Mount Vernon grad, clocked 49.37 for 11th in that race.

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

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Katelyn Tuohy breaks track mile record at Dr. Sander Invitational