Niwot’s distance darling is headed back to the Olympics.
Elise Cranny, a 2014 grad from Niwot High School who made the Tokyo Games in 2021, finished second in the 5,000-meter run at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Oregon on Monday, officially punching her ticket for the Paris Games next month.
Later in the week, she’ll look to qualify in the 1,500.
Explaining the feelings of making her second Olympics to a group of reporters Monday, the 28-year-old said “in some ways, when you’ve (already) made a team, it’s like there is a little more relief because you expect that from yourself.”
The key, she said, has been staying level. “Yes, it is the Trials. But you just want to finish as high as you can just like any other race.”
Any-other-race it wasn’t on Monday. With the top three finishers all breaking the U.S. Team Trials record previously held by Regina Jacobs in 2000, Elle St. Pierre (14.40.34) leaned into the finish to hold off a late push from Cranny (14.40.36), beating her by .02 seconds. Karissa Schweizer nabbed the final 5,000-meter spot, finishing third in 14:45.12.
“It was crazy,” Cranny said, long known for her late kick in races. “It was exciting. The energy of the crowd was incredible, so it made for a really fun race.”
In high school, Cranny won two cross country titles — the first coming after she sprinted to rally past former Air Academy standout Katie Rainsberger in the final meters — as well as six individual track titles. She attended Stanford, where she was a 12-time All-American.
Recently, Cranny was part of the famous Bowerman Track Club during her first Olympic Games (where she finished 13th in the 5,000) before leaving last year. After spending time training with Team Boss in Boulder, she’s is currently teamed up with Jarred Cornfield, an associate head coach for distance and mid-distance at Northern Arizona University.
