By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Sylvan Hills graduate Jeff Henderson fell well short of his best effort, but still finished second in the long jump in the United States Track and Field Indoor Championships this past weekend in Eugene, Ore.
Henderson, who has also been spending time this year doing private workouts for NFL teams interested in giving the speedster a chance to prove his mettle on the gridiron, competed in two events at the elite level for the first time in his career.
The 5-foot-10 Pan-Am games winner in the long jump, jumped 8.05 meters, or 26-feet, 5-inches for second place. The jump was more than a foot and a half from his personal best of 8.54 meters (28-feet, 1/4 inches) and 14 inches short of Marcus Dendy’s winning jump.
Henderson only used four of his six allowed attempts, deciding to pass on his final jumps in order to focus on the 60-meter dash, which he was running for the first time at a national championship event.
Henderson turned in the fourth-fastest time in the event with a 6.58-second run, but it was in his preliminary race.
That time qualified him for the semifinals, where he ran a 6.70 and failed to qualify for the finals.
Marvin Bracy won the finals with a time of 6.54. Henderson’s 6.58 would have been good for second place in the finals.
