DENVER – MSU Denver has for decades been a leader in providing equal opportunities for women in intercollegiate athletics.
Today is the 28
th installment of a 52-part tribute by Roadrunners Athletics to pioneers and leaders in intercollegiate athletics at MSU Denver.
Each Thursday, a key female figure in Roadrunners athletics history will be recognized.
Today, track & field star Breanna Hemming is featured.
A national-team level triathlete and a Division I springboard diver, Breanna Hemming had been told that running wasn't really her strong suit – certainly she was better in biking and swimming in the triathlon. Then she ran her first race as a member of the MSU Denver track & field program.
Hemming merely became arguably the best athlete in the history of the MSU Denver women's track & field and cross country programs, with a list of honors and awards from 2013 through 2015 almost too lengthy to put into perspective.
Hemming was a six-time track All-American (three events indoors, three outdoors) as well as an All-American in cross country. Among her individual national finishes was third in the outdoor 1500 in 2013, sixth in the indoor mile in 2014, eighth in the indoor mile in 2015 and seventh at cross country nationals in 2013.
During the 2013 outdoor season, she was the RMAC's Freshman of the Year, the RMAC Championships' Athlete of the Meet and RMAC champion in the 800 meters and 1500. She won the mile at the RMAC Championships in 2015, and was the RMAC's Academic Athlete of the Year, both indoors and outdoors, in 2015. She was a two-time Academic All-American.
The school record holder in the indoor 800 (2:15.61) and mile as well as the outdoor 800 meters (2:11.69) and 1500 (4:25.69), Hemming was inducted into the MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
Title IX, the groundbreaking law prohibiting sex-based discrimination at schools that receive funding from the federal government, went into effect just over 50 years ago – on June 23, 1972.
