Track & Field Report: Pat Henry recaps A&M's showing in Baton Rouge

Texas A&M competed last weekend at the LSU Alumni Gold in Baton Rouge, and the Aggies had a handful of standouts at another high-quality meet. On Tuesday, head coach Pat Henry shared the latest regarding his program in another edition of the Track & Field Report.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• We had the Legacy Awards banquet last night. Our group had some nice awards. The distinguished letterman award went to Julia Black Abell, who is a school record holder in the steeplechase. She is a great Aggie, and she is very deserving. Lamara Distin got the Athlete of the Year award. There is no one more deserving than her. She's jumping big time. The 12th Man of the Year award went to Grace Plain. She is a dedicated young lady that works very hard. Everyone in that distance group works hard.
   
• Issam Asinga is a high school kid who has recently committed to A&M. Keep in mind that 2.0 is a legal breeze. His sub-10 100m team was at 2.2 I think it was. The most impressive thing though is who you beat. Nobody can predict that he would be running this fast at this time in his life. He's a great one, and now the job is to get him on campus. We want him here to get an education. People are going to try and sign him early and give him money, but education matters too. How long is the money going to last though? You better be careful with that much money and make sure it will last. Young people and parents sometimes aren't looking down the road, and that's a struggle.
   
• At LSU, our meet went really well. We are getting prepared for the SEC Championships in a couple of weeks. We will be going to two different places this weekend. Philadelphia with our sprinters and distance group. Then we are taking our jumpers and field events to Tucson. Now we are on a two-week cycle meaning we have two weeks on and two weeks off.
   
• At this time in my coaching career, I work mostly with the sprinters. I’ll be going with the sprinters. As much as I enjoy every event, I have to go with the people who I directly coach. It’s also a staff decision. This is why I don't like splitting up. I like to have more eyes on the team at each meet.
   
• We will run one relay at Tucson, and then we will run two decathletes and two athletes to run in another relay as well.
   
• We don't all have sit-down meals all the time where the whole team eats one meal together, but when we travel, I give them per diem. They choose what's good for them.
   
• For these next meets, I'd like to see as many people have a good day on the same day as we can have. We have to have a lot of people hitting it on all cylinders. With past meets, you learn how to do something, and then you learn how to do it a little bit better than the last time. You figure out what you have to do to get it right all the time. It's about seeing where you are between your ears. Sometimes we see someone get better between their ears and they will show up in a way they haven't in the past.