I seriously think Price may have had her best performance of the year this weekend. I hope she can at least equal her USATF performance at World Youths, but I would be very surprised if she runs much faster. [Which is OK.] After a hard XC, Indoor and Outdoor season, I would assume she has peaked. Price has a good shot a Kim's record next year, but it is by no means guaranteed. Most of your top female middle/distance runners such as Debbie Heald, Joetta Clark, Mary Decker, Julia Stamps, Robin Campbell, Lynn Jennings, Suzie Tuffey and Erin Davis, all had their best performance in the their Sophomore or Junior year and only improved slightly or did not improve at all their senior year of of HS. Kim Gallagher ran 2:01x in Junior year and several 201s in her senior year before she ran 2:00.1. Once you get to a certain point, even slight improvements become difficult to achieve and I suspect Chanelle is at that point. And in terms of Chanelle running faster by changing her front running racing strategy, she runs the way she runs because she figured out that is what works best for her; Mary Decker and Kim Gallagher ran the exact way same way. The 800 is such a tactical race that the winner is quite often not the best athlete, but the one who executes the best race. You only get to make one move and running in the pack is risky, you are usually better off leading or running in the back of the pack. Btw - a big mistake a lot distance runners make in running the 800 is trying to run even splits, you first 400 should always be about 10% faster than your second 400.
I wish Chanelle all the luck in the world, but breaking the USR this year is unlikely and even doing it next year is not guaranteed. I say this because coaches and athletes can get so obsessed with achieving a certain performance that the essence of why you enjoy the sports gets lost. Mary Decker and Kim Gallagher spent so much of their teen aged years trying to live up to everyone's expectations that by the time they reached age 18 they were ready to walk away from the sport. - The point is, back off a little, appreciate what Chanelle is doing and don't keep asking for more.