Maryland Record Holder Started Racing Older Girls At Age 7, Showing 'Fearlessness' and Drive To Keep Improving

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

John Nepolitan photo

Elise Cooper entered her junior season holding an embarrassment of riches.

She had already won nine state championships. In the last race of her sophomore season, she set a Maryland state record in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.80 and claimed a Pan American U20 silver medal at the same time.

She was – is, rather – widely recognized as one of the top recruits in the class of 2025.

And yet, somehow, the odds were still against her.

In August 2023, the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, MD underwent months-long renovations.

This meant Cooper had to miss MIAA (Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association) League meets, which were typically held at the facility on Saturdays in December. In previous seasons, these meets served as early-season confidence boosters, allowing her to gain traction before national meets in January and February. Without those checkpoints, Cooper had to enter the most competitive part of her season blind.

“I was nervous about not being able to see a lot of my progress,” Cooper said, “since I didn’t go to as many meets as usual.” 

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She was up to the challenge, though. Instead of racing in Maryland with her teammates, she traveled to face elite competition right off the bat. On Dec.16, 2023, she opened her season at the Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational in New York City – and showed no signs that she lacked for preparation. 

She claimed three victories at the meet, winning the 55-meter dash (6.95), 200 (23.57) and 300 (38.44). 

“I was nervous because it was the first meet,” Cooper said, “but I’m glad that I started off with some good marks to set the tone for the rest of the season.”

That tone is hardly new. Defying odds and exceeding expectations has been a consistent theme throughout Cooper’s career. 

She started sprinting in second grade after her parents noticed that she liked to race her classmates. She joined Owings Mills Track Club, but she quit shortly after because her two sisters weren’t in the club.

When she got her sisters to run alongside her, though, she rejoined the club and started sprinting on the AAU circuit. As a seven-year-old, she often raced older competition, but she still found success.

In one of her earliest races, she remembers being the only seven-year-old in the final of an 8-and-under race. She got second place, and it was about then that she began to consider what she could do on the track.

“I was really proud of myself,” Cooper said. “I was against all these eight-year-olds and I was seven. It was a moment where I realized I could really run with people who were at a higher level.”

She was not alone in her excitement. Her mother, Danielle, says it was “mind-boggling” to watch her achieve her early success.

“It was surreal. It was excitement after excitement,” Cooper said. “I just couldn’t believe it was actually happening.”

As Elise got older, she continued to race more advanced competition, and she continued to rack up impressive performances. Sometimes, she would get nervous, but she reframed those nerves as motivation, reminding herself that she was an underdog.

“I kept in mind that I had nothing to lose,” Cooper said. “Honestly, it would be a little embarrassing for older competitors to be beaten by someone who’s younger.”

Those experiences paid off, especially when she raced against people her own age. She pulled off an impressive double at the 2017 AAU Junior Olympic Games, winning the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash in the 10 year-old division. In those races, she recorded times of 12.83 and 26.36 (wind-aided), respectively.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, though. In 2018, she won her AAU region qualifier in the 100 and 200, but she did not compete at the AAU Junior Olympics. Instead, she ran at the USATF Region 3 Championship and finished second in both events. 

“I always noticed when I was little that I would get second place,” Cooper said. “There would always be someone who was a little better than me.”

The next year, she returned to the AAU Junior Olympic Games, once again competing in the 100 and 200. In the former, she made quick work of her competition, taking home gold with a time of 12.28. 

The latter did not run as smoothly. Before her final, her mother and her coaches noticed that her stride was off, and it was clear she was running through pain. 

Danielle was hesitant to let Elise race, but after talking with her coaches, Elise decided to push through, and she won the race. At the time, it seemed like a triumph – an example of what Danielle calls Elise’s “fearlessness.”

“(That race) told me a lot about Elise,” Cooper said. “She doesn’t complain. She’s driven, and in that moment, she wanted to finish what she started.”

However, that triumph quickly turned to misfortune, as Elise’s nagging pain became a full-fledged stress fracture. For months, sprinting was replaced by rest and cross-training.

“I had to take a lot of time off, and I spent a lot of time in the pool,” Cooper said. “It was a lot of new types of training I had never done before.”

Due to her injury and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic, she didn’t record an official result for more than two years. These were difficult times for Cooper, but she didn’t let herself get down.

“I tried to think positive,” Cooper said. “As an athlete, you’re always going to have tough moments, but how do you respond to it? I mean, you have to look at the future and tell yourself that it’s gonna get better.”

One of the things that made this possible for her was the presence and support of her family. Her mother, Danielle, is one of her coaches, and her sisters, Elena and Ella, both sprint alongside her at the McDonogh School and with the Owings Mills Track Club.

“I literally don’t know if I could do it without my siblings,” Cooper said. “They have been a large support system for me. They’re my forever training partners.”

Elena, Elise’s twin, primarily competes in the long jump and long sprint events, but Ella, a senior and a Harvard commit, competes in the same events as Elise, promoting some friendly competition between the two during practice. Not only is this fun, Cooper says, it helps them get better as athletes.

In December 2021, Cooper returned to competition at the Energice Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational, her first high school meet. She took second place in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.23 seconds and third in the 300 in 39.83 seconds.

Those performances turned out to be signs of more to come; she lit up the track in her freshman year, running the fastest Maryland freshman times ever in the 100 (11.52w seconds) and 200 (23.64). She won freshman class races Nike Indoor Nationals (60 meters) and New Balance Outdoor Nationals (100 meters).

“It was all kind of new,” Cooper said about her freshman season. “I was returning from not running for a while, and I was also a freshman running against seniors. It was all really fun, though.”

It was also new for Danielle, who said she was “pleasantly surprised” to see Elise race so well, not only as a freshman but as someone who had recently dealt with a major injury.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Cooper said. “She had no experience running on an indoor track… and with an injury, you have no idea what you’re gonna get, or whether she’s fully healed. It really showed her determination.”

Still, there was room to grow and she continued to improve as a sophomore. Now in the championship section, she finished third in the 200 meter dash at New Balance Nationals Indoor (23.42).

Her last performance of the season, though, was her best ever. The 22.80 performance for the silver medal at the Pan American U20 Championships in Puerto Rico broke her own all-time Maryland best. She behind fellow American Shawnti Jackson, a graduating senior who clocked 22.35 for the gold. 

“It felt surreal,” Cooper said. “I was looking back at my whole career and thinking about how everything I had done had led up to this. It was the highest level I had ever been at.”

She says she couldn’t have done it without her coach, Michael Ray, whom she calls a “mastermind.” Ray adjusted her training throughout the season, keeping her training load light in the early months so she wouldn’t peak at the wrong time. When August rolled around, she was still fresh after nearly eight months of competition.

“I needed to be fast when it really mattered,” Cooper said.

Ray’s influence has been huge throughout her career. He was her coach at the Owings Mills Track Club when she started sprinting, and even though she competes on the high school circuit now, Ray still coordinates her workouts.

“I’ve known him for so long that he’s basically family,” Cooper said. “It’s really nice that he can still coach me. It’s really rare… I’ve seen a lot of schools that don’t allow it.”

Under Ray’s guidance, Cooper is in prime position to continue her excellence this season. Now widely considered one of the best sprinters in the country, she’s healthy, her home track is back open for her to us, and she's motivated.

She has taken home two more state titles this winter, one in the 55-meter dash and another in the 300 meter dash at the MIAA Indoor State Championships. Her next competition will be the Ocean Breeze Elite Invitational on Feb. 24, and she will run the same two events. She said she wants to come close to her personal bests in both, although some new PB’s “wouldn’t hurt.”

Either way, it's a tune-up for March. She will return to Nike Indoor Nationals March 8-10 for the season's ultimate test alongside the best sprinters in the country.