Anchorage Daily News

Chris Tuohy shouldn't have been competing at the Anchorage Invitational track and field meet Friday afternoon.

And it wasn't because the junior was supposed to be in English class at South High when his event, the high jump, began.

Tuohy was happy to be jumping at all after a freak knee injury two years ago threatened his athletic future. Doctors said he'd have trouble running and jumping the rest of his life.

But Tuohy wasn't hearing it.

"He's never said he was done," said his mother, Brownwyn. "The doctors did."

More than two years after shredding his right patella ligament into three pieces while horsing around with friends at school, Tuohy is competing again. He played basketball over the winter and now is clearing the 6-foot barrier in the high jump.

Tuohy won the boys title at that height Friday at the two-day Anchorage Invitational at Bartlett High, outdueling Kodiak's Karsten Schick and Grace Christian's Leif Karlberg. He just missed clearing his personal-best height of 6-2, although he wasn't complaining.

"It feels really good," Tuohy said of his victory."

This is his second season high jumping since the injury. Last year back he peaked at 5-10, but this year his coach said he's already soared 6-2 -- and expects to go higher.

"He took a week off and came out here and did 6 feet with one day of practice," South coach Cory Evans said.

Bartlett's Gabby Todd won the girls high jump with a 5-foot leap. And like Tuohy, she believes she can soar higher.

"I got 5-2 last year, so I'm trying to ... go over that," she said. "I'm trying to get 5-4 or higher."

Todd was the lone girl to clear 5 feet on Friday, meaning she had to push herself because nobody challenged her. She failed to clear 5-2.

"It's a mental thing," she said. "It's more than just jumping. You have to say you can do it and keep telling yourself that you have to jump over it."

But sometimes it's not meant to be. Last year, Todd was the top-ranked jumper in Alaska but failed to place at state.

"I went in No. 1 and came out (with) nothing, It broke my heart," she said. "But it's a new year and I'm trying to do new things."

On Friday, Todd also got some advice from Evans, an opposing coach. He was actually tutoring both Todd and Tuohy in the finals.

"I'm a coach and it doesn't matter what school I'm at," he said. "Anytime an athlete needs help I'm gonna give them that help. The better they get the more they're going to push my kids to get better.

"Of course, I want my kids to do better, but I'm gonna coach everyone."

Tuohy's success has Evans' fingerprints all over of it. The two have worked together for the last two years and now Tuohy is enjoying a breakout season.

"This year he's really pushing himself," Evans said. "He's right where he needs to be and hopefully we can push him to 6-4, 6-6 by state (in three weeks)."

The state record is 6-8, set all the way back in 1982.

Regardless of what happens, though, Tuohy is already a feel-good story.

"He's worked so hard in physical therapy over the years," said Tuohy's mother. "I am so proud of him."

Find assistant sports editor Van Williams online at adn.com/contact/vwilliams or call 257-4335.

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