Elizabeth DeBole coaches Stanford's women's distance runners, and in her first three seasons as head women's cross country coach she led the Cardinal to three consecutive top-five NCAA finishes, including a podium-finish of fourth in 2017.
DeBole, who has completed four academic years on staff, has collected two NCAA West Region Coach of the Year awards. She was Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2016 and Indoor Coach of the Year in 2017, the latter largely for her work with Elise Cranny and Vanessa Fraser, who combined to help Stanford to an NCAA runner-up finish in the distance medley relay.
Fraser would finish the 2018 season with a Stanford 5,000 record of 15:09.62, and became No. 6 on the all-time collegiate performers' list (including races outside the collegiate season) with the No. 7 collegiate performance ever. Fraser became the fifth runner in U.S. history to have run a sub-4:10 1,500 and sub-15:10 5,000 before age 23 -- joining Shalane Flanagan, Jenny Simpson, Suzy Favor Hamilton, and Karissa Schweizer.
With Cranny (4:09.49) and Christina Aragon (4:09.59) running the two fastest 1,500's ever at Stanford while placing third and fourth at the NCAA Championships, DeBole has coached Stanford's three fastest runners ever in that event, with Fraser running 4:09.74 later that season.
Showing their range, Cranny won the 2018 Pac-12 title in the 5,000, and Fraser won the 10,000. Fraser went on to place fourth in the NCAA outdoor 5,000.
In the 2019 indoor season, Fiona O'Keeffe placed third in the 5,000 at the NCAA Championships after setting a school record earlier in the season.
Of Stanford's seven women's school distance records -- including indoor and outdoor from the 1,500 to 10,000 -- DeBole-coached runners own four of them.
Six of DeBole's runners were named to the 2018 USTFCCCA All-Academic track and field team for having GPA's of at least 3.25 and advancing to NCAA competition. One of those athletes, Cranny, earned first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
In 2018, Cranny was named the Pac-12 Women's Scholar-Athlete of the Year for cross country and was joined O'Keeffe on the USTFCCCA All-Academic team. O'Keeffe owns three cross country All-America honors and three others in track and field.
In 2017, Fraser and sophomore O'Keeffe earned cross country All-America honors for the second time. All five Stanford scorers placed among the top 69.
During the 2017 outdoor track season, three of her runners -- Rebecca Mehra (1,500), Aragon (1,500), and O'Keeffe (5,000) -- earned first-team All-America honors. And Fraser, who redshirted, placed seventh in the 5,000 at the U.S. Championships. In all, six Cardinal women advanced to the NCAA West Prelims in the 1,500, and 11 of DeBole's runners advanced to the meet overall.
DeBole has helped Stanford become a prime destination for young talent. In 2016, Stanford had three freshmen scorers in NCAA cross country and won its first West Region title since 2007, capturing fifth at the NCAA Championships. O'Keeffe and Aragon won All-America honors.
DeBole was named to the head cross country coaching position in August, 2016, while also serving as an assistant coach in track.
Among Stanford highlights during the 2015-16 academic year under DeBole, Cranny was the NCAA runner-up in the 1,500 meters, Aisling Cuffe won the Pac-12 cross country title, Claudia Saunders earned her third top-four finish in the NCAA outdoor 800, and five of DeBole's runners advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In 2014, school records fell in the 800 and distance medley relay, and Jessica Tonn was third in the NCAA outdoor 5,000.
In her first two Stanford cross country seasons as an assistant under Chris Miltenberg, the Cardinal women placed 14th at the NCAA Championships. In 2014, Cranny was the Pac-12 runner-up and placed 12th at the NCAA's, the highest finish by any freshman and the best frosh placing for a Stanford runner since 1999, and was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.
A three-year cross country and track and field team captain and four-time All-America at Georgetown, the former Elizabeth Maloy was seventh at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 5,000 while coached by Miltenberg, now Stanford's Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field. She placed among the top 10 at five U.S. championship meets and ran a personal best of 15:15.27.
In addition, the Loudonville, New York, native was a two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic selection and earned Big East Conference Scholar-Athlete honors. She then became a volunteer assistant coach at Georgetown before coming to Stanford. She is married to Matt DeBole, also a former runner at Georgetown. They have two sons, George and Thomas.