McHenry wins National Championship in 800 meter
NCAA Indoor Championship Results
Mason McHenry of the Arizona State track and field squad won the National Championship in the 800 meter run, March 10. En route to his gold medal, the senior posted a facility-best time at 1:47.87 in the prelims as he helped the Sun Devil men's track and field team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Nampa, Idaho.
In the men's 800-meter run prelims on March 9, McHenry clocked the fastest time of the day in 1:47.87 to advance to the final. The time was one hundredth of a second slower than McHenry's top time this season and gave him the facility record in the event.
McHenry helped boost Arizona State's men's team score from 13.00 to 23.00 after day two for a fourth-place, trophy-earning finish. McHenry clocked the title-bearing time of 1:47.96 to beat out Michael Preble of Texas A&M (1:48.11) and Erik Sowinski of Iowa (1:48.93), respectively.
His 2012 performance was just shy of his personal-best time of 1:47.75. Also in the McHenry trophy case: he was the two-time defending MPSF Indoor Championships 800m champion for 2009 and 2010. He is tops in the event in the school record books for indoor, while ranking sixth in outdoor with a time of 1:48.25.
For McHenry, it was his second career indoor All-America performance and first since his freshman year in 2009. In the process, McHenry helped Arizona State to its second-best finish in school history indoors behind only the 2008 NCAA Championship. It was the ASU men's fourth top-10 finish in the past five season.
In the men's triple jump, senior Chris Benard took second overall with a career-best leap of 16.50m (54-01.50). Benard led through three rounds before Florida's Omar Craddock surpassed him on his third jump, going on to win the event with a mark of 16.75m (54-11.50). Benard's runner-up finish was good for his third school record of the year, beating out the mark he set at the MPSF Championships two weekends ago.
In the men's high jump, sophomore Bryan McBride got the scoring started for the Sun Devils on Saturday with a clearance of 2.20m (7-02.50) to take sixth overall and earn his first career All-America finish.
On the women's side, sophomore Anna Jelmini earned her second consecutive indoor All-America honor as she took fifth in the shot put with a career-best throw of 17.15m (56-03.25). That throw moved her into second all-time in ASU's indoor shot put history, passing Jessica Pressley in the process.
The Sun Devils return to action next weekend as they begin the outdoor season as home with the Blady Castillo Invitational March 16-17, at the Sun Angel Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.