Missouri S&T senior Jordan Henry, who has been a five-time champion in track & field in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and two-time national runner-up in the pole vault, has landed yet another honor for his performance during the 2008-09 academic year.
Henry was named today as the recipient of the GLVC's Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men’s track and field for the second consecutive year. That honor comes on the heels of being named as the conference’s Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award winner as the top men’s student-athlete in the GLVC and earning ESPN The Magazine academic all-district honors for the 2009 season.
Henry, a native of St. Charles, Mo. (Francis Howell North) and an electrical engineering major at Missouri S&T, earned a pair of top-five finishes this season in the pole vault at the two NCAA Division II championship meets. He finished as the national runner-up for the second year in a row during the national indoor meet in Houston in March, then wrapped up his career by finishing fifth in the event and tying his own school record of 17-0 3/4 in the process last month at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in San Angelo, Texas.
He finished his career as the winner of five All-America awards in the pole vault during his four years at Missouri S&T.
Prior to this season, Henry had earned All-America awards in the pole vault at the NCAA’s indoor meet in 2007 and 2008 and the 2008 Outdoor Championships. He was seventh in the 2007 indoor meet and second in 2008, then placed fourth at last year’s outdoor meet.
In addition to his performance at the national level, Henry was also been a top competitor at the conference level where he finished among the top four at all eight of the GLVC championship meets he has taken part in over the last four seasons. He has won league titles in the event four times, including the 2009 outdoor meet when he initially set the Missouri S&T outdoor school record.
Henry was also a league champion in the indoor heptathlon this year – the first year that the conference has contested that event at its indoor championships – and finished among the top six in the long jump at each of the last two GLVC Outdoor Championships. His performance at the 2009 indoor meet earned Henry the "Male Athlete of the Year" award from the conference.
In addition to his athletic accomplishments, Henry has also been an outstanding student at Missouri S&T. A member of the university’s honor roll, he has been named to the electrical engineering department’s academic scholar list in all four years at S&T as well as a scholar-athlete through the university’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
He was named a year ago to the ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-America team as well as the GLVC’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year in men’s track & field. He is also a three-time academic all-district selection in the sport; as a first-team selection this spring, he is in line for Academic All-America honors. The 2008-09 national team will be announced June 18.
At Missouri S&T, Henry has served as the men’s track & field team’s representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, on the Chancellor’s Leadership Academy, and is a member of the Eta Kappa Nu, Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi honor societies. In addition, he has served as a mentor during the university’s orientation week and as an undergraduate research assistant for the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering at S&T.