Elise MF Cranny

Continued success is no surprise. Looks like she recovered well after Tokyo.

I just think she should move to the steeple. She's faster than the top US steeplers and shes athletic enough to handle the hurdlers and water jump. She would contend for for medals very quickly, and her kick would serve her well.

Track Fan 12:51 wrote:

Continued success is no surprise. Looks like she recovered well after Tokyo.

I just think she should move to the steeple. She's faster than the top US steeplers and shes athletic enough to handle the hurdlers and water jump. She would contend for for medals very quickly, and her kick would serve her well.

I don't think she should move to the steeple. Generally I think the "everyone should move to the steeple because it's a weak event" is a bad take. Consider Wale -- nearly broke Komen's indoor 3000 record, won the Ethiopian trials 5000, they put him in the steeple and lack of technique puts him out of the medals, and then he flops in the 5000 from tired legs.

How do we know she's athletic enough? She's 5'4. Coburn/Frerichs/Quigley are 5'7+. I think Val Constien is 5'6. Same with Falland. I don't know -- Cranny is already one of the best flat runners in the country. Might as well stick with that. She might very well be a top three in the USA in 1500, 5000, and 10,000.

birdbeard wrote: Cranny is already one of the best flat runners in the country. Might as well stick with that. She might very well be a top three in the USA in 1500, 5000, and 10,000.

Agreed.

McGorty switched to the Steeple, in part, because BTC had so many elite 5k runners that Sean appeared to be odd-man out for making the Oly team, particularly w/Chelimo in the mix. Elise, however, was already one of the US's top three or four 5k runners going into 2021 and had her trip to Tokyo made easier by Simpson sticking with the 1500, and Rowbury getting injured.

Jerry is training Elise the way he did with Shelby after she graduated, name, spend her first couple years w/BTC getting stronger thru 5k training and racing. Shelby's 3rd year w/BTC was in 2018 when she had her sub-4/1500 breakout win at Pre then specialized in the 1500 after that.

Maybe Elise will do the same. Maybe she will continue on with the 5k/10k.

But, sure would be great to see what she could do right now in a time-trial 1500.

Bower Man wrote:

What's also impressive is Elise's first win over GDS --and by a good margin.

GDS won Prickly Pear bacin Feor the bruary in 8:38 pr over Cranny in 4th in 8:40pr, so today was probably an off race for Gabriella. Nonetheless, both have bounced around the world --- from Park City to Tokyo to Eugene to Paris -- and Elise is just absorbing all e training/racing/fatigue and keeps getting better.

Based upon what's happened this spring and summer, and with Shelby on the shelf, an argument can be made that Elise is now -- for the moment -- the best of the Bowerman Babes. Karissa's prs are better but Elise beat her at the Trials and Karissa has shut it down for the summer.

Canadian media were saying GDS picked up an injury at Pre; thought she could race through it and give Paris a go but clearly that wasn't the case. She was slated to do the mile in Brussels, presumably Zurich, and was also meant to do 5th Ave, but has called it quits and is apparently already back in Canada. Given her 5km PB, and the fact that she closed that February 8:38 in a 29 last 200, then 8:44 and 2nd last is more than just a bad day. It's by some margin her worst race since she was still in college, so I'm inclined to believe the injury narrative.

I would say Cranny is arguably the most versatile woman at BTC, being top 2 on the team 1500 thru 10,000. Not however the best compared to the rest of the world. 13/15 at the Olympics, vs. Stafford coming 5th in Tokyo, 6th in Doha. Although that 13 was probably an underperformance itself for Cranny, given she needed a ton of medical help for Hyponatremia post 5000 heats in Tokyo.

I'd put Cranny over Stafford in the 5,000 and the 10,000, and Schweizer over them both in the 10,000m, but the Canadian is still in another league at the 1500 and 800. It slipped under the radar a bit, but she ran 3:58 twice in less than 48 hours in Tokyo. In the heats, she led wire to wire, and closed her 4:03 with a 43/59/2:02 last 300/400/800. That kind of close/those performances would have been more than enough for to medal at more than a couple global champs in the past decade. Cranny's 1500m PB from this year is still only 4:02 in an even, rabbited race, and Stafford's 1:58 (beating Rogers and Grace less than a month before trials) this year is no slouch of a time.

I'd put the BTC women's pecking order something like this:

10,000 - Schweizer then Cranny (yes Cranny beat her in February, but she used Schweizer as a rabbit til the last 100m. In the one bona fide race between them at trials Schweizer won comfortably).

5,000 - Cranny, Queen of the middle ground, solid 1500m speed meets great 10,000m strength.

800/1500 - Stafford best over both, Cranny 2nd in the 1500, Johnson 2nd in the 800.

Excellent post above; have to agree w/everything stated, knowing now that GDS was injured in Paris.

And, what's the story behind Cranny's hyponatremia problem in Tokyo? That was never mentioned on tv or print media during the Games; rather, just one LRC post a few days ago. Rumor? Who's the source? Hyponatremia is more associated with hiking long distances in hot summer weather, not with elite 5k track athletes.

Regardless, well-considered post.

Bower Man VII wrote:

Excellent post above; have to agree w/everything stated, knowing now that GDS was injured in Paris.

And, what's the story behind Cranny's hyponatremia problem in Tokyo? That was never mentioned on tv or print media during the Games; rather, just one LRC post a few days ago. Rumor? Who's the source? Hyponatremia is more associated with hiking long distances in hot summer weather, not with elite 5k track athletes.

Regardless, well-considered post.

Heard it from one of my best sources of accurate track gossip - a friend who is a national team physio/medical support staff (non US) who was in Tokyo. I don't doubt him, we've never discussed Cranny before or since so would be extremely random/specific a rumour to start. We were just talking about another athlete from his country in the final and other impressive results. He mentioned he thought Cranny was impressive given the circumstances. Tl;dr, she didn't eat close enough to the race and didn't eat enough for whatever reason, raced in the extreme heat, and gets pulled for doping control and forgot to bring snack/electrolytes with her. Too dehydrated to give proper sample, starts chugging water. Whole ordeal drags on over an hour (so been 5+ hours since consuming calories while chugging water). Starts getting dizzy and shaking and the testing agent eventually calls for help and people start bustling about trying to help.

Since he told me I was surprised I haven't heard of it elsewhere, but Cranny is generally quiet on social media, Schumacher doesn't really do media, so if Cranny didn't want to bring it up it wouldn't get out there. I could see her not wanting to bring it up and have it seem like she was making an excuse for not running better.

RE: "just a guy on the internet saying stuff so could be made up." But I also post under "runs and knows things" when the website glitches and doesn't let me post under this pseudonym. Physio friend, knowing I was a BTC fan, teased me by saying "I heard your favourite team is getting another sub 4 gal" but wouldn't tell me who. I posted about that on July 4th. That turned out to be true with BTC announcing GDS joining later that month (I think you actually correctly guessed GDS based off of that intel). Not the best source confirmation, but at least I & my source have some form.

I believe she is athletic enough for a couple reasons. I had the opportunity to watch her a significant amount of her high school career up close. She was originally an excellent soccer player. She was also spent a significant amount of time swimming competitively. A smarter coach than me once pointed out that swimmers do well in steeplechase because the barriers are similar to the swim turns off the wall. Not technique wise, but the act of a single athletic move spaced evening between maintaining race pace. Yes she can consistently be top three in the USA in the 1500, 5K or 10K. But Courtney got an Olympic silver medal and I think she could run as fast as Courtney. Plus there such a huge drop-off between behind Emma and Courtney, Val Constien made the team as an unsponsored athlete. Bowerman should be putting someone there.

another perspective wrote:

Heard it from one of my best sources of accurate track gossip - a friend who is a national team physio/medical support staff (non US) who was in Tokyo.

Ok, thx for info. File that under Drug Testing Stories to Tell my Kids . . . when I have Them.

Cranny (and Norris) racing the mile on Friday in Brussels against Hassan and many other world's best. Just the kind of race I was hoping she could find a lane in. 4:18 mile worth a 4-flat 1500, yes? Slaney's 4:16.71 is the outdoor AR, 4:16.85 is EPSP's indoor AR (clocked 4:00.2 en route).