San Hensh enters his sixth season as a volunteer coach with the West Virginia University track and field team.
Hensh, who specializes primarily with the pole vault group at WVU, has coached four of the five Mountaineers on the team’s all-time performance list (indoor and outdoor). In all, he has coached 11 All-Big 12 performers.
The Mountaineer vaulters experienced one of their best seasons in school history in 2017-18, as Madelin Gardner claimed All-America First Team honors with an eighth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Gardner also secured All-America Second Team honors by finishing ninth at the indoor national championships.
Gardner was joined by Sara Finfrock at the 2018 NCAA East Preliminary Regionals. The two finished the year by posting WVU’s No. 1 and No. 3 all-time marks in program history in both indoor and outdoor competitions. Gardner broke the indoor school record with a mark of 4.37 meters, before she took down the program’s outdoor-best mark of 4.41 meters. Finfrock also posted jumps of more than four meters during both seasons.
In 2017, Hensh led Gardner to the NCAA East Preliminary Regionals, the Mountaineers’ first vaulter to do so since 2013. Gardner, who earned All-Big 12 status at the conference’s outdoor championship, also set the previous outdoor school record of 4.13 meters at the 2017 Virginia Challenge.
Along with his duties with WVU, Hensh also serves as coach/director of the Mountain State Track Club, located in Morgantown. Additionally, Hensh has mentored four West Virginia high school state champions and one Maryland state champion during his coaching career.
Prior to his time at WVU, Hensh served as a coach at Laurel Highlands High School in western Pennsylvania.
Hensh competed at Bethany College for one season and holds the school record in the men’s pole vault. He currently resides in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
