Sunday, June 10, 2018: Day 2 of the state track and field meet

   Leading off today: "It's not clear exactly when a high school sophomore named Katelyn Tuohy became the next great phenom in American distance running."

   That observation came a couple of days ago courtesy of The New York Times, which devoted close to 2,000 words to the North Rockland sophomore, her relentless attack on record books and why he may or may not eventual fare better than the many female scholastic distance phenoms of the past.

   If it's not precisely clear when Tuohy became the next great phenom in American distance running, what is now indisputable is that she is in fact the next great phenom in American distance running.

   Tuohy added to her legend Saturday on the final day of the NYSPHSAA and Federation track and field championships at Cicero-North Syracuse by winning the 1,500 meters in 4:14.75, more than 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Reilly Siebert of Syosset while breaking a Mary Cain meet record from 2011.

   A day earlier, Tuohy, won the 3,000 meters by more than 36 seconds with a time that broke the national record for sophomores.

   "Her performance this weekend was one of the best that I've ever seen from a high school track athlete," North Rockland coach Kyle Murphy said. "She just knew this was the big time. This was the time to go and lay it all out and run as fast as she could."

   Putting up dominating performances against quality competition on consecutive days was merely another step in her development.

   "I kind of just wanted a bigger challenge," Tuohy said. "I knew I was going to have to be really smart not only with how I raced, but I warm up and how I cool down because it was going to be a long weekend."

   What a finale: It's likely Tuohy will win the season-ending Gatorade track athlete of the year award, but Rush-Henrietta great Lanae-Tava Thomas dropped one final reminder that she belongs in the conversation.

   The USC-bound senior finished the weekend with seven first-place and one second-placing showing, lacing up the spikes 10 times in two days.

   Thomas won both the Federation and NYSPHSAA titles in the 100 and 200, setting a Section 5 record of :11.65 in the 100. She also anchored the Royal Comets' 400 relay to another sectional record (:46.61) a day after running a monster anchor to rally R-H to the Division I title in the 1,600 relay.

   "The week has been nice," Thomas said. "It was nice to come out here and just do our best. We had some (personal records) and that was really nice. We accomplished a lot of goals."

   Between indoor and outdoor state meets, Thomas finishes her scholastic career with 56 medals since eighth grade.

   Steeple superlatives: Maine-Endwell's Parker Stokes set the state junior-class record in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 9:05.67, also good enough for the Section 4 record.

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   A year ago at Union-Endicott, Stokes was the Division II champion and fifth overall in a much more modest 9:30.62.

   He reached the bell lap shoulder-to-shoulder with Liam Higgins of Goshen but began distancing himself early in the backstretch.

   "With about 150 left I looked back and I thought Liam would be right behind me. I guess I closed a little harder than I thought I would," Stokes said.

NYSPHSAA boys lacrosse brackets NYSPHSAA girls lacrosse brackets NYSPHSAA baseball brackets NYSPHSAA softball brackets Past years' brackets

   meanwhile, Tully's Brooke Rauber ran the nation's fast time ever by a freshman girl when she finished the 2,000 steeplechase in 6:45.34. It was good enough for the NYSPHSAA Division II title and second in the Federation medals table to Brooklyn Tech senior Aziza Chigatayeva (6:43.04).

   More boys highlights: The Rochester Edison 400 relay of Delonta Curry, Jah'kier Moore, Jaquil Baxter and Adrian Jones was a disappointing third on Friday in the NYSPHSAA Division I race but more than atoned Saturday in the federation final.

   "We practiced handoffs more, made sure everything was swift and got a good night's rest," Baxter said. "We ate well this morning and all of that. We made sure that we were mentally and physically ready to run."

   The Inventors won in :42.38 to hold off Sweet Home (:42.44) and Cardinal Hayes (:42.54).

   "Don't ever let anyone's time in the past prevent what you can do in the future. Ever. We can do this," Moore said.

    • The boys 110 hurdles final was anything but an artistic success. Sullivan West's Michael Mullally, who'd already swept both Division II hurdles finals, won the Federation crown in :14.15, narrowly avoiding becoming collateral damage after Tai Brown of Midwood crashed hard in an adjacent lane.

   "I don't know, man," Mullally said, shaking his head. "That race was a mess."

   The West Point recruit has been dealing with a recent hip injury, and he aggravated the injury again going over the final hurdle. Still, he finished the race as only the third most banged up competitor. Brown jogged home half a minute behind the leaders after his crash, and Asiel King of Uniondale also fell and was a DNF.

   "I've been doing this since eighth grade," Mullally said. "I'm pretty beat up. But it's all worth it."

   Still, he was banged up enough to have to scratch from the federation 400 hurdles.

   More girls highlights: St. John's-bound Valhalla senior Sam Morillo took Federation titles, winning in the discus and shot put events. She had won the NYSPHSAA Division II shot put and placed second in the discus a day earlier.

    • Delhi pentathlete Logan Bruce captured the Division II pentathlon three months after being a starting guard for a state-championship basketball team and in only her third attempt at the multi-event discipline.

   Does either feat get the nod atop her list?

   "That's too hard to choose," she said. "I have the satisfaction now of knowing I did it, but in the winter it was so special because I did it with 13 other girls. I don't think I could ever choose one. They're equally sweet in their own way."

Full results: Boys and girls agate from the meet has been added to our reference section.