INDIANAPOLIS – University of Findlay junior track and field throwing standout Eldred Henry was officially crowned as the 2018-19 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Male Athlete of the Year on Tuesday morning.
 
It was a season of epic proportions for the hulking Henry, a product from the British Virgin Islands listed at 6-5, 397 pounds. He was recognized by a vote from the administrators around the league’s member institutions to celebrate his accomplishments for the academic year.
 
Henry earned the prestigious league honor over some very strong athletic resumes assembled by student-athletes across the Great Midwest in 2018-19.
 
Specifically, in the shot put event, Henry staked his claim to national championships in the indoor and outdoor seasons while establishing brand new NCAA Division II records in Pittsburg, Kan., and Kingsville, Texas.
 
Henry registered a new national record during indoors with a distance of 20.61m while shattering the outdoor NCAA Championships record at 21.67m. At the time of those new championship bests, both marks also ranked in the top 20 of the entire world.
 
Henry would have decisively won the NCAA Division I Championship outdoor title after Texas’ Adrian Piperi logged a winning distance of 21.11m. He represented his home country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the shot put.
 
Henry is the current record holder for the British Virgin Islands in shot put, weight throw, discus and hammer throw. He has competed at a number of international events with his talents on display.
 
Henry is now the Great Midwest record holder in both indoor and outdoor shot put lists as the league gets ready for its eighth year of existence going into 2019-20. He also helped Findlay win the 2018-19 Great Midwest Presidents’ Cup in just the Oilers’ second attempt as a league member.
 
Leading the Oilers’ vaunted throwing corps along with teammate national champ Austin Combs, Henry swept Great Midwest Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year awards and was billed the USTFCCCA National Men’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Year.
 
Henry additionally earned NCAA All-American honors in the discus throw at outdoor nationals and was a USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region Team honoree in all throwing events he qualified for.
 
Henry is in elite company for Findlay as multiple NCAA champions from the conference along with Combs and Tiffin’s Jonte Baker. He is the first Findlay student-athlete to win the yearly award and the second track and field thrower (Malone’s Duke Taylor) since the tradition began in 2012-13.