Track & Field Report: Aggies utilizing bye week ahead of SEC Championships

Texas A&M is back from a successful trip to the Penn Relays, and now the Aggies will rest up ahead of the hugely important SEC Championships next week. On Tuesday morning, the legendary Pat Henry joined TexAgs Radio for another edition of the Track & Field Report.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• I brought a men's shot put for you guys to see. A men's shot put weighs 16 pounds, and a women's weighs 8 pounds. I also brought a map to visualize how far these guys are throwing these things. The world record is just short of net-t-net on a basketball court of throwing a 16-pound shot put. These men are powerful.
   
• This is a bye week just before the SEC Championships. We need a couple of people to get healthier. We only have two guys that we need to get a little healthier. They trained yesterday with the group, and I'm feeling better about them. One of them got hurt in Philadelphia. He had a cramp, and that can sometimes hurt you for days. We are trying to figure that out right now, and he had a good workout yesterday. It's looking better. A pulled hamstring can be really bad. When you pull a hamstring, it's like you got shot in the leg. Those guys hit the ground and go down quickly.
   
• The weather was terrible at the Penn Relays. It was about as cold as I've been in a long time, and it was raining, and there was a little bit of a wind chill. It was a difficult day, but I was really proud of the group. We won our heat on both the men's and women's sides. It put us in a good position for the next day. They didn't back off. I only heard one person say one thing about the weather. They know it's something you just have to be ready for.
   
• Jermaisha Arnold did a great job. More so than anything, she's a great competitor. If she's behind. she goes after the person and beats them. If she's ahead, she stays there.
   
• It was a personal record of 10:11 for Julia Abell in the steeplechase. She did great. A great effort from her both academically and athletically. She is graduating, going into grad school, and she's a double major.
   
• Teddy Radtke had a new personal record and is currently leading the SEC. That is significant for a young steepler. It's going to be tough at the conference though. He's going to have to run that and more.
   
• Heather Abadie did great at the Desert Classic. It was a good weekend. Definitely different from ours. It was 90 degrees there, but we had some great things happen.
   
• It's not just a time to physically relax, it's mental as well. We have finals going in right now too. There's a lot going on right now this time of year. This rest period falls perfectly for us. A lot of people physically pounded themselves pretty well this past weekend, and we don't have a lot of recovery weekends during the season. This is good for us.
   
• Going into the SEC Championships at LSU, any time you go through any adversity if you use it to your benefit you can make it a positive. Some people just will not compete on bad weather days and if you are one of those people you are going to have to change to be successful.
   
• Bryce Foster is doing good. He needs this week to calm some things down. He has an oblique issue.
   
• I am really happy for Devon Achane, and I hope people see later on what they missed out on with that guy. He's a football player and track athlete. He can turn it off and be the other sport, and that is really great.
   
• We will be at a good venue at LSU. This will probably be the finest track meet in the world. Nothing compares to this meet. In the SEC Championships, there is not a single event where the person in the event has not been ranked, so it is definitely going to be a great meet all around.