Nike Cross Nationals Champions Earns Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Nico Young

With 58.69 percent of the vote, Nico Young won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Katelyn Tuohy with her second-place tally of 26.44 percent.

The Newbury Park CA senior dominated his final cross country race of his high school career in winning Nike Cross Nationals. Young broke away from the field early in the race and extended his lead all the way to the finish.

Young crossed the finish line well clear of anyone else in 14:52. That gave him a 14-second win and broke the course record on a rainy day in Portland.

Watch Young's race on NikeCrossNationals.com.

Also important was Young leading his team to the NXN team title. Newbury Park won over California rivals Great Oak by four points, scoring 128 points.

Watch Young's post-race interview on NikeCrossNationals.com.

Editors’ Choice: Katelyn Tuohy

There were many performances last week worth highlighting, but the Nike Cross Nationals win by Tuohy is one worth talking about. The North Rockland NY junior won her third straight NXN title, becoming the first athlete to win three titles.

Running in her third NXN, Tuohy crossed the finish line in first place with a time of 17:18. However, unlike her past two wins, Tuohy had a race on her hands at the end, with Taylor Ewert and Sydney Thorvaldson doing their best to chase down the race favorite.

Watch Tuohy's race on NikeCrossNationals.com.

Despite Tuohy's dominance over the past three years, including many record breaking performances, this race was likely Tuohy's hardest. She was well aware entering the race of the position she held. No one had ever won three NXN individual titles before. What was more, Tuohy had doubts in her training after an injury during the summer forced her to take a month off from training.

Even in the race itself, Tuohy had her doubts. At the 3K mark, she began to wonder if she might lose. Having so many runners so close to her was unfamiliar territory.

However, as Tuohy crested the final hill in first place, she knew she had come too far not to win. She powered down the final stretch to take the win and make history.

Watch Tuohy's post-race interview on NikeCrossNationals.com.