San Diego State University junior
Ashley Henderson was selected as the 2017 Mountain West Women’s Indoor Track & Field Student-Athlete of the Year.
The Student-Athlete of the Year award recognizes the outstanding female and male athletes in the sport of indoor track and field. Student-athletes are nominated and selected by the head coaches of each member institution.
Henderson captured two United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Indoor Track & Field First-Team All-American nods for her fourth-place finishes in the 60- and 200-meter dashes at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. She was the only MW athlete this year to earn first-team All-American accolades in multiple events.
At the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Henderson ran the 60-meter dash in 7.216, beating out Oregon’s
Deajah Stevens (7.218) and LSU’s
Kortnei Johnson (7.220). In the 200-meter dash, which was split into two four-person sections, Henderson won the first section with her 22.83 time, finishing fourth in the race.
This season, Henderson was the MW Indoor Track & Field Championship Women's Outstanding Performer of the Meet and an all-conference performer after winning the 60- and 200-meter dashes at the conference meet. Those performances broke the SDSU and MW all-time marks, as she ran the second-best 60 (7.17) and sixth-best 200 (22.81) in Division I this season. The St. Louis native was one of two MW sprinters in the 60-meter dash and the lone conference representative in the 200-meter dash.
The 2016 Mountain West Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Student-Athlete of the Year, Henderson is the Aztecs’ first Indoor Track & Field Student-Athlete of the Year since three-time NCAA triple jump champion
Shanieka Thomas swept the 2013 awards. She is just the second Aztec to win the award under SDSU’s eight-year head coach
Shelia Burrell.