Winter Haven's Dashanique Henry keeps moving up as a top girls track athlete in Class 4A

LAKELAND — If your a girls track and field athlete in Polk County, it’s easy to get overshadowed by Chelsi Williams, but Winter Haven junior Dashanique Henry has managed to managed to stand out and make her own way since she took to the track for the Blue Devils.

Henry won two medals at the state meet as a freshman, including a bronze medal in the long jump. This season, she’s on pace to medal for state in three events for the first time, as she is ranked in the top eight in Class 4A in the 200-meter dash, the 400 and the long jump.

At the county meet on Saturday, she won them all in what is a prelude other the big postseason meets — districts, regionals and state.

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“I’m really happy with how I did,” Henry said. “I feel like I could do better, but it's good that I still know I'm still able to do these times even after basketball season coming late.”

With the district meet just over a week a way, Henry is ranked first in the district in her three events with a personal-best 24.40 seconds in the 200, 55.89 in the 400 and 5.85 meters (19 feet, 2 1/4 inches) in the long jump. Those efforts put her No. 2 in the 200, No. 1 in the 400 and No. 3 in the long jump for the region meet and fifth, sixth and fifth, respectively, overall in Class 4A.

“Coming off basketball, she’s trying to get back into track shape so she can get back to where she was and capitalize off that,” Winter Haven coach Ledarius Haggins said.

Haggins is in his second season coaching Henry in high school, but he has coached her at the club level as well. Henry started in track when she was 10 and joined Haggins’ team a couple of years later.

“I have gotten bigger and stronger, but I feel like I’m getting better because at first, I didn’t know how to run,” she said.

Henry, who is the daughter of Dominic Henry, a star quarterback at Winter Haven in the mid-1990s, ran the 100 a lot in AAU but settled on the 200 and 400 for her running events in high school.

“It’s a love-hate event,” she said of the 400. “At first , I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.’ But then as I started doing it more, I started enjoying it and live it because it’s something I’m really good at.”

Henry’s victory in the long jump at the county meet was the first time Williams, a junior at George Jenkins, lost to a Polk County athlete in any event.

“Even though I beat her, it’s good, but it’s not good because I didn’t a PR or anything,” she said. “And I know she’s coming back (from an injury). I know what she is able to do. So I still need to work hard.”

Henry burst on the high school scene after Williams had already won state titles as an eighth-grader at McKeel. As a freshman she won district titles in the 200 and the 400, then qualified for the state meet in the 400, where she finished seventh. In the long jump, she finished third at county, second at districts and third at the region meet.

Last year, Henry was county, district and regional champion in the 400 but slumped to 11th place at the state meet. She was county and district champion in the 200 and finished fourth at the regional meet. Beyond her fifth-place long jump finish at the regional, only Williams beat her in that event for the season; she finished runner-up at the state finals.

Henry grabbed a PR in the 200 on Saturday and is looking to get more in the postseason. Her best time in the 400 is 54.52, which she set last year as a sophomore, and her best long jump is 5.89, which she set as a freshman. She jumped 5.85 earlier this year.

Henry is only halfway through her high school postseasons, and Haggins said she has the potential to be a state champion before her career ends.

“She has the potential because everybody’s right there,” she said. “Everybody is running in the high 53s (seconds in the 400) to the mid-55s. So She’s there, especially with the condition she’s in and getting in. We start districts in two weeks, and it’s just going to go on workload and how she handles it. I think that the better the competition, the better the performance. So she’s going to put herself there.”

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven's Dashanique Henry keeps moving up as a top girls track athlete in Class 4A