Houlihan v. Cranny in Oakland
Houlihan v. Cranny in Oakland
Teams: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, Colorado, Utah, UCLA, USC, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State
What to Watch: In the individual race, it’s going to come down to Saucony Flo50’s No. 1 Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State and No. 10 Elise Cranny of Stanford. Houlihan started the season with a bang by running away with the win at the Roy Griak Invitational for her second meet title in a row. At Griak, Houlihan stated that her goal was to “win every race this season,” but Wisco turned out to be a different story as the senior fell off in the final 800-meters to claim third overall. Cranny also won her first meet of the season at Washington, taking down the field with a seven-second win over runner-up Melanie Townsend of NAU. The freshman continued to impress at Wisco with a seventh-place overall finish in a blazing time of 19:53, proving that she can hang tough in a national-caliber field. There will be another freshman to look out for as Cal’s Bethan Knights has proven her resilience in big-time competition with a fifth-place finish at Pre-Nats. The Golden Bear arrived at Cal with the fastest same-day double in high school history (1600m, 3200m), and should continue to mix things up on Friday.
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In the team race, it’ll be a battle between No. 4 Oregon, No. 7 Colorado, No. 12 Stanford, and No. 16 Washington. The Ducks’ pack strategy has proven to work very well for them after taking the team title at the UW Invite and second at Pre-Nats. Their 10-second spread in Terre Haute brought them on another level above No. 2 Michigan who finished third. But don’t count out the Colorado Buffaloes, who will also be relying on a tight pack to overthrow the Ducks. Led by a dangerous low stick in Erin Clark (7th individually), the Buffaloes claimed fourth place at Pre-Nats and will look to step it up for the Pac-12 team title. Stanford has a clear leader in Elise Cranny and claimed a seventh-place team finish at Wisconsin and a runner-up finish to Oregon at UW, but the Cardinal women have yet to shorten the gap between Cranny and the No. 2 runner. The Washington Huskies also had a strong showing at the UW Invite with a third-place finish and a low stick in Maddie Meyers (3), but fell short at Wisco with a 13th-place team finish behind Stanford (7th).
Predictions: After coming off of a disappointing third-place at Wisco, Houlihan will come back firing to outlast Cranny in the individual race. Oregon’s tight pack will claim the team title over Colorado, but Erin Clark will finish ahead of Oregon’s No. 1 runner.
Update: According to the entry list, Columbia transfer Waverly Neer (four-time All American) will make her debut in the Oregon uniform.