Elizabeth Leachman

Samuel V. Champion HS, San Antonio, TX, c/o 2026
AthleticNET Bio

Elizabeth Leachman’s 9:57.65 two mile for third place at the Nike Outdoor Nationals left everyone scrambling to find out just who this runner was. Where did she come from? The freshman went from being a very good freshman runner to one of the best ever for her freshman class and for her age in US high school history in just one race. Her list of accomplishments following the race:

• She ran the fastest two mile time by a freshman in US High School history eclipsing the 10:04.73 run by London Culbreath, North(McKinney, TX) in 2017. Her two mile time converts to 9:54.18 3200m which is second only to the 9:50.69 3200m time run by Sadie Englehardt, Ventura, CA in 2022 when she was a freshman.

• Her 3,000m enroute time of 9:19.41 broke the US freshman best of 9:26.32 run by Jordan Hasay(Mission Prep, San Luis Obispo, CA) in 2006.

• At age 15 years 5 months and 14 days, she just missed the age 15 record of 9:19.09 run by Kelsey Chmiel(Saratoga Springs, NY) in 2017.

Leachman’s resume wasn’t too shabby coming into the Nike Outdoor National two mile final. She had run 10:31.65 for two miles at the Nike Indoor Nationals to place seventh and then went on to win the Texas 5A State championship in the 1600m in 4:47.28. At the Nike Outdoor Nationals  two mile final, she ran like a veteran. She stayed with the lead pack for a mile before taking over the pace just before lap 6. She gave up the lead to finish third, but registered a 4:56.74 for the final mile so it made sense that she lost some ground to some superior racers. Where did she get this stamina and resolve to compete at such a high level in such a short time?

Leachman’s running career wasn’t scripted. She ran her first race as a fourth grader, but running regularly didn’t last long. She stopped training after a couple of months. The experience was a good one for her overall.

“I didn't like running very much. I kind of was planning on walking that race, honestly, but we got there and my dad was running it. So I decided I'd go ahead and try and run it. And then I ended up having a really good time and going a lot faster than I expected to,” she says. “I just liked the feeling of being free and being able to really push yourself. I thought that was cool.”

She played basketball and softball from then on and didn’t pick up cross country until the seventh grade when the sport was offered. The COVID quarantine accelerated her training.

“I really needed something to do in a way. I guess to get those positive endorphins,” she says of COVID restrictions that had her outdoors, masking and seeing very little of her friends. “ I guess it was  very lonely sometimes.”

Once school began, her coach, Julie Olsen set her on a more structured training program. Olsen ran for Fayettleville-Manlius from ‘99-’00 just when legendary coach Bill Aris began his coaching career. She was able to use that knowledge and provide good training plans.  There were hill repeats, long run days and easy days, and “ins and outs” workouts.

“They weren't always the most intense workouts necessarily, because we were only in middle school,” she says. “Most of us hadn't run more than two miles. It really helped me get in shape and have a base to work off of.”

Her freshman year of high school, Leachman began to have injuries. Though the training wasn’t intense, she developed tendonitis and bursitis in her hip which kept her from running full time. The diagnosis stemmed from the inward pronation of her foot which put stress on her growth plate which had not completely closed causing inflammation. She turned to cross training to allow her to keep competing. Her access to cross training was limited and she didn’t have much flexibility with her training- it was either run, not run or cross-train. She acknowledges that she wasn’t as honest about telling her coaches about her injury and she struggled during her cross country not running what she thought she was capable of because of the pain.

“Somewhere during championship season, my hip really started bothering me again,” she says. “Our team was progressing, but my results were kind of stagnating and I was not doing as well. I definitely didn't feel as well, but I didn't really want to tell my coaches that much about my injury because I didn't want to get sidelined when we were so close to the end. We already had two girls out and I didn’t want to make it three. That was probably a bad move on my part. I think the reason I didn't do so well at NXR was just because I was hurting and I didn't really have more to give once I was in a bad point in the race.”

Her high school coaches, Jenny Breuer and Jonthan Tate were patient with Leachman allowing her to crosstrain in the winter months after cross country season. She was going along well until February when the pain in her  hip returned. She was told to take a couple of weeks off and after that the pain was gone.

She began to experiment with her training schedule with the help of her club coach, Kenny Dirkson, they decided that running twice per week and cross training on her easy days allowed her body to heal and she could run without pain in her hip. 

One of her favorite athletes is Parker Valby who crosstrains as well. “I think that it's cool to me that she has kind of a similar training plan,” she says. And like Valby, Leachman uses the Arc Trainer or the Elliptical at her gym where she works at the smoothie bar. The job allows her to have more access to the machines which she has come to be a staple of her training.

Leachman chose to exercise 90 minutes on the Arc or Elliptical trainer arbitrarily. It works best for her as it was the right amount of intensity and duration to help her fitness. She has stuck to that time frame since. She monitors her heart rate with her Whoop to make sure the effort is high enough. When a pool is available, she does some pool work.

Feeling more healthy than ever, she ran some indoor meets. She  meant to run more in the indoor season, but she also swims on the swim team and had some scheduling conflicts. Going into Nike Indoor Nationals, she had run only run one other two mile and it was in the 10:50 range.  At Nike Indoor Nationals, she negative splitted and lowered her time to 10:31.65 and placed seventh.

“I wasn't expecting the drop that much time,” she says. “ But what really surprised me the most was I never really negative splitted before. And so to do that for the first time was kind of a big deal for me[5:17/5:14] because I didn't think I really had the capability to race that way so that was exciting for me.”

Leachman was able to continue to tap into her successful training plan and run pain free which allowed her to improve dramatically during the track season. She lowered her 1600m best of 5:23 to 4:52.46 at the Texas Relays to finish fourth.

By the region meet she was favored in the 3,200m and the 1,600m, but then disaster struck. The week leading up to the meet, she got sick. Allergies had already been a problem for her and she wasn’t feeling well. On race day she felt better but still was feeling under the weather. She lined up for the 3,200m with hopes of just qualifying. With 300m to go, she said she couldn’t feel her legs and with 120 meters she fell over, unable to finish.

“They carried me into the training room, I guess, and they had these doctors look at me and make sure I was okay. They said that I was going to be okay and not have to go to the hospital. So I just kind of came home and I tried to rest and make sure I was eating enough to let my body recover,” she says.

The disappointment of not qualifying was great for Leachman and after conferring with her parents and her coaches, she decided to run the 1,600m final.

“My parents told me you know that they really didn't want me to feel any pressure to go and it wasn't guaranteed that I was going to be able to go,” she says of the 1,600m which was held the following day. “ And my coaches definitely were concerned and wanting to make sure everything was okay. I definitely didn't know that I was for sure going to get to race it until about three hours before the race, but I was really pretty determined to do it. And I think that after how devastated I was after the 3200 they decided it was a short enough race and I was doing better enough that it was going to be okay to let me try it.”

With the green light to run, Leachman proceeded to win the region meet with a 4:58.93.

“I definitely felt it wasn’t  my strongest race, but I didn't feel sick or dizzy like I was gonna collapse or anything. So definitely worlds better than the day before.”

She entered the state meet as a dark horse to say the least given the circumstances of her qualifying and her freshman status. College Station senior Maddie Jones was the top returnee and Layleigh Littlefiled had won the 800m in impressive fashion. But in the final, Leachman blasted out to a 71 first lap and a 72 second lap(2:23) to get a seven second advantage over the field. She increased that lead by the finish by running a personal best of 4:47.28 as Jones finished second in 4:56.95. Littlefield finished a distance ninth in 5:17.07.

“I don't have the best kick and I know that,” she says. “Especially in this race, I knew that I was going to have Kailey Littlefield[ 2:07.70 to win 5A 800m title] there. And after watching her 800, I knew that she had the finishing speed that I just do not  so I had to try to get out there and establish a lead early so that they couldn't close on me that much at the end.”

With that signature win, Leachman decided to turn her focus to Nike Outdoor Nationals. She had other racing opportunities after state, but she chose to concentrate on training for a month. There she ran her best time for the two mile. She came back the following day to record a 4:51.35 using a similar strategy she had used to win the Texas State 5A Championship. She finished tenth.

Heading into this upcoming season, she’s excited to continue running. She is dedicated and has confidence in her training plan. At the Nike Elite summit in late July, her commitment was apparent. She was able to use the elliptical trainer in the hotel and get a ten mile run with the workout time that was provided. She gets most excited talking about her team and the prospects for the upcoming season. Her team has really helped her and this upcoming season she is excited to work with them.

“I definitely made a lot of progress once I started getting those workouts in,” she says of her team and their workouts. “ I think also just having the team to train with really helped push me and make me better. And I don't think I would have gotten to where I was without them for sure. We lost four seniors this past year, but had a new addition this track season that should help us out. Plus we have some JV and incoming runners coming in so I’m excited.”