Mike Henderson

Mike Henderson, a seasoned coach with more than 15 years of experience, was named an Assistant Coach for the men’s cross country/track & field teams at Cornell University in July of 2017. He was in charge of guiding the Big Red men’s cross country team and the track & field team in the middle-distance and long-distance events. After serving as the men's cross country and track and field assistant coach for two years, Henderson was named the Alan B. '53 and Elizabeth Heekin Harris Head Coach of Women's Track & Field/Men's and Women's Cross Country in August of 2019.

In his first year as head coach of the cross country teams, Henderson coached the men's and women's team to finish sixth at the 2019 Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships. The men earned 164 points for their finish while the women notched 127. The women's team went on to finish second at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship to earn an automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA Championships for the first time since 1998.

After Covid-19 stripped Cornell of its season, Henderson returned in 2021 to coach both the men's and women's cross country teams to finish seventh at Heps. Rebecca Hasser was named First Team All-Ivy after finishing seventh overall at Heps and Perry Mackinnon earned a trip to the NCAA Championship meet in Tallahassee, Fla. as a top individual finisher not associated with a qualifying team after finishing 10th overall at NCAA Northeast Regionals.

Henderson's first season as the head coach of women's track and field was cut short with the cancellation of spring sports to aid in the efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the cancellation, the team earned a third-place finish at Heps with 82.5 points. Junior Elle Orie earned a title in the 5000 with a facility record while sophomore Beatrice Juskeviciute (pentathlon) and Claire Kao '20 (pole vault) won their respective events with school records. Juskeciviute served as Henderson's first All-American as her pentathlon score qualified for the 2020 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship, a competition that was eventually canceled.

During the 2021-22 Indoor Track and Field season, Coach Henderson led his group to a fourth-place finish at the Heptagonal Championships, which included two NCAA qualifying athletes (Juskeciviute and Leone Farquharson), both of which would go on to earn Second Team All-American honors in the pentathlon and long jump, respectively. . The outdoor campaign would have a similar flow, with Mike's squad earning fourth at Heps, along with two All-Americans (Juskeciviute and Marguerite Lorenzo), both earning First Team All-American honors in the heptathlon and high-jump, respectively.

Mike's 2022 Cross Country campaign would see the men finishing third in the Heptagonal Championships, and the women seventh. The men would field Rhys Hammond and Perry Mackinnon in the NCAA Championships, with them finishing 109th and 173rd, respectively. During the 2022-23 Indoor Track and Field campaign, Ama Boham (hurdles) and Victoria Atkinson (pole-vault) set all-time Cornell marks at Heps, which included Boham taking gold in the 60-meter hurdles. The outdoor season would see Victoria Atkinson, Lauren Jones, and Skyy Johnson qualify for NCAA Regionals.