May 9, 2011
TEMPE – The Pac-10 Conference announced its track and field athletes of the week (May 2-8) with Arizona State University senior Samantha Henderson being selected as the Pac-10 Women’s Field Athlete of the Week following her victory in the heptathlon at the Pac-10 Multi Championships in Tucson over the weekend. Her selection for the weekly award is the first of her career and third of the season for the Sun Devils after Jasmine Chaney was named the women’s track recipient on April 18 and Ryan Milus earned the men’s track honor on April 25.
Henderson captured her first Pac-10 title by winning the heptathlon crown with a personal-best score of 5,470 points and earning 10 of the Sun Devils’ 23 points so far in the Championships after improving from a fourth-place showing one year ago and bettering her 2010 score by 344 points (5,126). The second woman in ASU history to win the Pac-10 heptathlon (Jacquelyn Johnson, 2004, 2006, 2008), Henderson’s score ranks her third all-time in ASU history and seventh currently in the NCAA. Henderson won two individual events in the seven-event competition, taking the top spot in the high jump (1.72m/5-07.75) and the shot put (12.68m/41-07.25) while also placing second in the long jump with a personal-best leap of 6.20m (20-04.25), bettering her previous best mark by 3.5 inches (6.06m/19-10.75).
Henderson and the rest of the Sun Devils will return to Tucson this Friday and Saturday to compete in the remaining events of the Pac-10 Championships. The ASU women lead the team standings through one event with 23 points while the men are in fifth place with one point after Austin Prince finished eighth in the men’s decathlon.