Track & Field Report: Henry & Co. to host 44 Farms Team Invitational

Returning from Baton Rouge and Stanford, the Texas A&M track & field team is back home to host the 44 Farms Team Invitational at E.B. Cushing Stadium. Legendary head coach Pat Henry joined Wednesday's edition of TexAgs Radio to discuss the upcoming meets and more. 

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• It's like a latter. You take the next step. The LSU meet was a competitive situation — more than the week before. Our people stepped up and did some great things. I am extremely with the group and what is going on right now. 
   
• You talk about baseball rankings: It is important to the guys on the team to see how they are ranked and looked at. It’s the same thing with our guys. The difference with ours is their is timing and a tape measure. There is no subjectivity.
   
• Sam Whitmarsh has had something go wrong every year. He has two heart surgeries. I could go down a litany of things. Finally, Sam is healthy. He has been waiting, and I knew this would happen. He showed these kinds of things in training. To run 1:44:16 in the 800 meters this early in the year is a performance no one in this country expected to see. Our school record holder did it at the NCAA Championship, and that is the fastest time ever run.
   
• Ja’Qualon Scott is the same way. He is one of the best hurdlers in the world. As well as Connor Schulman. They are competitive with each other but really competitive when someone else steps on the track. They are Texas A&M. The team is coming together, and that is what this is all about right now.
   
• I work with our quarter milers, but we never run a quarter in practice. We are developing posture and speed. It is diffilcult in training to replicate things that happen in a meet. I have to figure out what buttons to punch with each certain athlete at this level.
   
• Paul Ereng was hired this summer and works with our half-milers. He was an Olympic gold medalist and a world record holder at the 800 meters. He has some pretty good knowledge of what is going on. Not all athletes are good coaches. Paul is a good coach. He is teaching different things to different people. He is a real positive right now for that group. 
   
• I have a hard time splitting the teams. That’s what we need to change. The group at Stanford did a good job out there. They got some things done. 
   
• The 44 Farms Team Invitational will be a good competition starting up here on Friday. We have a decathlon and heptathlon going on as well. The bulk of the meet is on Saturday. We have a lot of schools from around the area, but USC is coming in, too. They have some fine talent. Next week, we go down to Florida. That will be a big step up.