DENVER – MSU Denver has announced its latest class of legends to be inducted into the Roadrunners Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Former softball All-American Jennessa Tesone, men's basketball standout Lester Strong, baseball pioneer Curt Culver and the 2008 women's soccer team will be enshrined on Saturday, April 12^th, in a 7 p.m. ceremony at the Tivoli Turnhalle Suites at MSU Denver. The event follows the 6 p.m. social hour. Tickets can be purchased here. 
 
The 2008 women's soccer team won 20 games that season, while making it all the way to national semifinals. Lead by head coach Adrianne Almaraz-Pietz, the squad went 20-2-3 overall, 11-0-2 in the RMAC and won both the RMAC regular season and tournament championships. That squad featured All-American defensive back Nico Cito, who was named the region's player of the year, the conference's player of the year and the conference's defensive player of the year. The defensive back line was stout with Cito, Courtney Ryan and Nicole Renko leading the way and they shutout 16 opponents that season. Becca Maloney manned the net and sported an impressive 0.38 goals-against average. The Roadrunners' offense was led by All-American Becca Mays, who formed an awesome one-two punch with Jen Thomas. The duo combined for 36 goals, 17 assists and 89 points. Mays, Cito, Alamaraz-Pietz and Ryan are all in the Roadrunners Hall of Fame as individuals.
 
Jennessa Tesone was the first player recruited by former head coach Jen Fisher to restart the softball program in 2008 and the Niwot native would leave as one of the most storied players of all-time. She is still the program's all-time home run leader with 56 round trippers and helped the program go 159-54 in her four-year career. She is also the all-time leader in RBIs (191), second in base hits (227), third in runs scored (171) and finished her career with a .362 batting average. She helped the program win three RMAC regular season titles, two RMAC Tournament titles, the 2010 Central Region championship and led the team all the way to 2010 College World Series. 
 
Lester Strong played a huge part in the early 2000's success of the men's basketball program. During his time in downtown Denver, he led the Roadrunners to an 89-14 record, which included an RMAC regular season record of 51-6. Strong was a part of two RMAC Tournament Championship teams (2003, 2004), played on three NCAA Tournament teams, which included the 2002 national championship squad and the 2004 regional championship team. He finished his Roadrunners career first in field goal percentage (.644) and stills ranks second all-time. He currently sits fifth in program history in career rebounds (779) and fifth in rebounds per game (7.6). Strong had a long professional playing career overseas. 
 
Curt Culver played an integral part during the early days of the baseball program, helping bring respectability to Mile High baseball. Culver played for the program from 1979 to 1981 and helped Metro State to a 24-17 record in his final campaign. He was a menace on the base paths stealing 69 bags in 72 attempts, and that number still ranks second today. While hitting .434 in 1981, Culver nabbed 37 bases in 38 attempts that season, which ranks third all-time for stolen bases in a single season.  Over his three-year career, Culver hit .354, recorded 18 doubles, eight triples, 12 home runs and 74 RBI. He played with Roadrunner Hall of Famers Greg Isenhart and Gary Romero.