July 7, 2009

Fairfield, CT - Sacred Heart's Kathleen Henry (Basking Ridge, NJ) has been named the 2008-09 Northeast Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award, announced Tuesday by the league office, is sponsored by the league's Faculty Athletic Representatives and is bestowed upon an NEC male and female student-athlete who has exhausted their eligibility, graduated, and posted the highest GPA in the Conference at the conclusion of the academic year.

Henry opened her career by capturing the NEC Freshman of the Year award at the league's Cross Country Championship meet in 2005 and now concludes it by garnering the prestigious academic honor. The NEC Cross Country Championship's fifth overall individual finisher in each of her first two seasons of intercollegiate competition, Henry led Sacred Heart to its first-ever conference title as a freshman and a third-place finish in 2006. Most recently, Henry was the 24th individual to cross the finish line at the 2008 NEC Cross Country Championships and took fourth in the 10,000 meters at the 2009 NEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The accomplished distance runner graduated with a degree in Business.

Henry was one of three females to earn the Scholar-Athlete Award. Also earning honors were Saint Francis (PA) field hockey goalkeeper Erin Reifsteck and Robert Morris field athlete Tara Maxwell. All three student-athletes came within a fraction of attaining a perfect 4.00 GPA as each of the four posted matching 3.99 marks. Monmouth men's tennis player Benjamin Evenden claimed sole possession of the men's award.

The latest installment in the three-year history of the NEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is the first in which there have been multiple women's winners. The men's award was shared once when St. Francis (NY) water polo players/swimmers Moran Stern and Andrija Vrdoljak earned the inaugural honor in 2006-07.