Since her freshman year, senior Emma Beedon has run on the state and national stages. With a CIF State Championship title and nationals qualification under her belt, she’s moving forward with a Division I commitment for cross country and track and field at Loyola Marymount University (LMU).
“I hope to be able to thrive both academically and athletically at LMU,” Emma said. “I’m super interested in the M-School, which is a marketing-focused program, and I love being by the beach, so it just felt like a great fit.”
Emma didn’t always plan to run in college — she played soccer for most of her life, starting in the American Youth Soccer Organization at a young age and moving to play soccer competitively in high school. In fact, she originally joined cross country in middle school simply to build fitness for soccer.
But after standing out on the Los Altos High School varsity team her freshman year — helping the team qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon — Emma decided to focus on running.
“Once I had a successful freshman season in high school, my mindset definitely switched,” Emma said. “I realized that it was a real possibility for college.”
After her sophomore year, Emma said she made the difficult decision to quit club soccer to focus more on 800m and 1600m. However, her junior year presented an unexpected obstacle when she suffered a severe stress fracture to her pelvis.
Unable to compete in her junior year cross country season, she spent months cross-training to keep her fitness up through pool swimming.
“During that time, it felt like I was making no progress and I was just falling behind from a lot of other recruits,” Emma said. “It taught me to just trust the process and stay consistent with training.”
Despite the setback, Emma found ways to support her team even when she could not race. According to her teammate, senior Emma Lewis, during a grueling 10-mile Saturday long run, Emma Beedon biked alongside her teammates to cheer them on.
Teammate senior Ishika Modi said she recognized early on that Emma brought unique value to the program, both on and off the track. Outside of practice, Emma hosted team bonding events, such as Jamba Juice runs or dinner parties.
“Emma is a huge part of what makes our team culture so strong, and what makes everyone excited to come to practice,” senior Ishika Modi said. “She has this contagious enthusiasm — everyone gets excited when she shows up and has fun bonding ideas.”
After cross-training through her injury, Emma returned to running at a similar level as before her stress fracture and continued on her journey to recruitment. Her senior track season, Emma posted a season best of 5:29.69 in the 1600m at the CCS Last Chance Invitational. After visiting multiple programs during her senior year and building a strong relationship with the LMU coaching staff, she officially committed to the Lions in March.
“I felt very cared for on my LMU visit,” Emma said. “The location is a big thing for me, and I’m just super excited to spend the next four years there.”
