Speed and Strength: Gabriella Grissom and Sanaa Hebron

This story originally appeared in the Spring 2026 edition of Miami Hurricanes Magazine. Both Gabriella Grissom and Sanaa Hebron are set to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will take place June 10-13 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Grissom will compete with the 4×400 relay, while Hebron will compete in the 400-meter hurdles and the 4×400 relay.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. –  They arrived at Miami and quickly learned they had plenty in common.

Both of them were the daughters of professional athletes. Both of them grew up with talented siblings that helped foster good-natured competition and pushed them to be their absolute best. Both of them were accomplished track and field standouts and both of them wanted to make the most of their college experiences and write their own individual stories.

Four years later, Gabriella Grissom and Sanaa Hebron have done exactly that, adding their names to the list of storied women who have competed for the Hurricanes track and field program, all while marveling at the parallel journeys that brought them both to Coral Gables.

“Her being from Georgia, we didn’t really cross paths at all until we both signed, so knowing that there was someone that had such a similar background as me was funny,” Hebron said of the way she and Grissom quickly bonded four years ago. “Then let alone, we signed to the same school and we were roommates. It’s honestly just so crazy how it happened.”

The pair may no longer share a dorm room, but they still share one crucial similarity.

Resilience.

Grissom and Hebron, 4×400-meter relay teammates who have become two of Miami’s steadiest performers, have each endured their share of challenges during their time as Hurricanes.

But they’ve found the strength and resolve to work through those challenges and in the process, have become two of Miami’s biggest leaders, on and off the track.

“Both of them came in with a very strong work ethic and both of them have a passion to not only be great on the track, but also to excel academically,” said Amy Deem, Miami’s Director of Track and Field and Cross Country. “Each of them had different challenges to becoming All-Americans, but I think the biggest thing is they may not race the way they want, but they both come back every Monday ready to go. They’re focused. They’re ready to go. They think ‘Okay, this weekend I had this happen, but today, I’ve got to get better.’

“And I think as they’ve gotten older, they’ve really become leaders. I’ve had multiple kids this year tell me how much they’ve helped them, or say ‘I want to be like Gigi,’ or ‘I want to be like Sanaa.’ … I think their teammates coming to me and saying that shows how much growth [Grissom and Hebron] have had in their time here. It also says that other people notice what they’re doing and how they’ve worked through things, but they’re still out there every day, trying really hard.”

Grissom – a sprinter from Fayetteville, Georgia – has added her name to the Miami record book multiple times throughout her Hurricanes career and currently holds the program record in the 800-meters with a time of 2:01.00.

She’s an All-American, an ACC Champion, an NCAA qualifier and is on track to earn a master’s degree in finance this spring after completing her undergraduate degree in three years.

During her time at Miami, Grissom also interned with an Atlanta-based investment firm and joined Divine Nine sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Her schedule is often jam-packed, and she’s mastered the art of time management.

But early on in her Miami career, Grissom struggled.

It was hard to be away from her family, including her father, Marquis, who spent 16 years playing Major League Baseball; her brother, Marquis Jr., who played baseball at Georgia Tech and is now a member of the Washington Nationals organization, her mother, Daphne, and the rest of her older siblings, Tiana, D’Monte, and Micah.

The carefully structured environment she’d created for herself as a five-time state champion at Georgia’s Sandy Creek High School was gone and Grissom found herself having to start a new life in a new place while competing on a new team.

It proved challenging in a way she hadn’t expected, and all of the changes she faced took a toll.

“I got to college and things weren’t what I expected them to be, and I got to a point where I was really sad, and I was having to talk to a lot of therapists and I just didn’t have my support system,” Grissom said. “The people here, I had just met. My family was so far away. I think it was just a really hard transition for me. And so, I think coming back sophomore year, junior year, senior year and just being resilient and making myself think positively and changing my perspective, I would say that’s what got me through that and that’s what has shaped my mindset today. That was probably my biggest struggle. I’ve been through some other ones, but that was the one that really changed, I think, who I was.”

Once Grissom began to feel more comfortable, she began to push herself harder – in the best way possible.

As a sophomore, she won the ACC indoor championship as part of the 4×400 relay team. She ran the third-fastest 800-meter outdoor race in school history at the Pepsi Relays.

By her junior year, she’d set the school record in her signature event and this season, is looking to continue building on her success.

“Gigi will just push, push, push until she can’t go anymore, so it’s really about trying to get her to understand how to use her competitiveness and her aggressiveness on the track in a positive manner,” Deem said. “Gigi’s very inquisitive. So, you have to have maturity as a coach to be able to handle the questions that she’s going to ask you and embrace it. You can’t be intimidated by it. I think that’s been the biggest thing, just watching her grow and constantly asking questions, wanting to get better.”

Like Grissom, Hebron brought a sparkling resume and a determined work ethic with her to Miami.

Her father, Vaughn, was a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos. Her brother, Savion, was a sprinter at Penn State. And Hebron and her four siblings played their fair share of competitive pickup basketball together growing up.

By the time her career ended at Neshaminy High School in Pennsylvania, Hebron was an indoor national champion in the 400 meters, a two-time state champion and a four-time district champion.

As a freshman at Miami, she was part of the Hurricanes’ 4×400 relay team and notched one of the top 10 times in the nation in the 400-meter hurdles. Sophomore year brought her her first win in that event and a pair of ACC Championships.

She earned second-team All-American honors, represented Miami at the USATF U20 Championships, where she won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles and seemed ready to put together a memorable junior season before she was sidelined by the first serious injury of her career.

Hebron fractured her foot and was forced to miss both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2024. As she navigated her recovery and rehabilitation, she watched as her teammates moved forward with the season, traveling to indoor meets across the country, competing and setting personal bests.

She tried to stay engaged and be as supportive as possible, but it was difficult and more than once, she couldn’t help but feel like she was being left behind.

“I would say it’s very difficult when you get injured. I don’t think it’s talked about, how isolated you feel, especially when your team starts traveling,” Hebron said. “I broke my foot and found out in December, right before indoors started. So, when the team started traveling, I felt alone a lot, and I was rehabbing all the time. Mentally, it was very tiring, and I just tried to think of the little things and the little positives that I was growing and getting better.”

As she worked to get herself healthy and ready to compete again, Hebron did her best to try and lean on her family and friends for encouragement. She wrote poetry and journaled to try and get a handle on her feelings and her teammates and coaches tried to provide support, too.

But even in her toughest moments, Deem noticed that Hebron never lost her focus.

“She came out every day and whatever we had for her, she tried her best to do it,” Deem said. “I think there was a lot of growth, too, in learning to say, ‘Enough is enough’ or to not look at it as a weakness to say, ‘Coach, my foot really hurts. I can’t do anymore today.’ That’s not just a coach-athlete moment, that’s a life moment, where you’re growing and you’re learning to be an advocate for yourself. That’s one of the things I thought she did a great job with within this process.”

Once Hebron was finally cleared to get back on the track, though, another challenge presented itself.

As good as it felt to begin practicing again, Hebron couldn’t help but wonder if she’d still be able to compete at the same high level she’d been at before her injury.

There was fear, mixed in with her excitement.

“Those thoughts definitely do pop up in your head because there’s a lot riding on it. You’re like, ‘Am I going to be the same?’ ‘Is this going to do this?’ ‘Is that going to do that?’ My nerves were higher for sure, especially for indoor season,” Hebron said. “I felt so removed from competing, that was definitely a segue and then doing hurdles, I felt like I hadn’t hurdled in so long. So, I think a lot of it was that it was fun to finally be back out there again, but it was also nerve-wracking because it had been so long. There was a duality to it.”

It didn’t take long for Hebron to discover she still felt like herself on the track.

She opened the indoor season with a personal best time of 38.00 in the 300m at the Gamecock Opener and later in the spring, she became the first Hurricane since 2018 to win the ACC championship in the 400-meter hurdles when she crossed the finish line with a time of 55.21, the second-fastest time in school history.

Hebron went on to qualify for the NCAA Championships and earned a pair of first-team All-American honors.

This season, the senior has only continued to get stronger.

In April, she set a new meet record at the historic Penn Relays with a time of 55.30 in the 400m hurdles and is heading into May with the fourth fastest time nationally in her signature event.

Now, Grissom and Hebron are looking to close out the season on a high note.

The Hurricanes are set to compete at the ACC Track and Field Championships in mid-May, with NCAA qualifiers following shortly thereafter.

And while the pair is hoping to add to their collectively long list of postseason accomplishments, Grissom and Hebron are also looking to continue setting the tone for their younger teammates and creating a legacy that will stay at Miami long after their respective college careers are over.

They know the challenges they’ve endured have shaped them into the young women they are today and say their time at Miami has helped them grow, too.

“I actually have a tattoo on my foot that I broke that says, ‘But God,’ because although in the moment it felt like my world was shattering, God had a better story for me and there was a reason for it,’” Hebron said. “I feel like as an athlete, I’m much stronger and I’m able to tell the positives from things much better than I could before, just from going through that experience. So, I think it really has shaped me, and I feel like all of it was something that I had to go through to get where I’m at today. … I hope I’ve shown the next generation that they can come here and really do amazing things.”