Track & Field Report: Henry & Co. recap final weekend of regular season

Over the weekend, Texas A&M track & field competed in the Penn Relays and Corky/Crofoot Shootout. On Wednesday, Pat Henry, Wendell McRaven, Kennady Fontenot and Julia Abell joined TexAgs Radio to speak on the season and preview the SEC Championships.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• At the Penn Relays, there will be over 100,000 people watching in the stadium, and that’s significant about the meet. It’s a great venue. It’s a long meet, but it’s 120 years old, so it’s good for track and field. 
   
• The wheel is a 3-foot-in-diameter trophy. It makes it hard when you win one, where to put it because it’s so big. You find a place to put them, and we’ve been fortunate enough to win some, so it’s been good for us. 
   
• The men’s 4x800-meter set a school record, and that group ran very well. I think our lead-off leg, Kimar Farquharson, had another three to four seconds in him. He was more worried about winning the leg than running the time. Had he done what he thought he was going to, we would have set a national record, not just a school record. All of those guys are coming back next year so they’ll get another opportunity. You just don’t run it that often. 
   
• The 4x400-meter group looked good as well. The half-miler who normally runs with them...There was 30 minutes from the 4x800 to the 4x400, and that’s not enough time. Cutler Zamzow, who’s running really well stepped in and ran fantastic. 
   
• Zamzow is a guy who we can really depend on now to do some things for that group. As you move forward, you can’t go in a relay with only four people. You have to be 100 percent healthy and very seldom with all four. So you’ll have to have five or six guys ready.
   
• Kennady Fontenot will be in here. Julia Abell is one of my new assistants, and she was the school record holder in the Steeplechase. Wendel McRaven coached her, and now Kennady is being coached by both of them. Kennady just broke her record, so I wanted all three of them to come in here to talk with you. 
   
• I’ve had some great athletes, and we’ve won a lot of things at Penn. We haven’t gone to Penn in a while. The SEC was trying to have meets on campus with four or five teams from around the conference, which is what we should be doing, but some people don’t want to do that. That’s too bad. 
   
• We’re excited to head to Gainesville for an SEC Championships. The last time we were there we had a great meet. This group just seems to get a little bit better as we go. That’s what I’m really proud of about this team this year is their ability to continue to improve, and that means you have to put yourself out on a limb. You have to go into territory you haven't been before. That’s always fun to watch. 
   
• You’ve got to be hitting on all cylinders. Everybody has got to have a good day on the same day. That is something we try to preach.
   
• That’s very, very difficult, but that’s the strength of this group. That’s what I’m proud of about this group is that we’ve been fortunate enough to be healthy, which means they train right. This is a fun time of the year, and this is when it starts counting. 
   
• Sam Whitmarsh on the distance medley relay. I think if we could run it tomorrow we would win it. He just hasn’t run any miles. I think that was the second mile he’s run in competition. We were pleased with it, although we think there is a lot more in the tank. On the 4x800, he ran a 1:45 flat and just ran a tremendous leg. The rest of the guys put him in a position to be successful at the end of that, but Sam is tough and running really well right now. 
   
• Winning the SEC is almost the national championship itself. If you look at the rankings right now, the SEC dominates the rankings. That’s what makes this conference so good, and everybody wants to win. Everybody does what it takes to try to be successful, and this is an important sport in our conference. It’s fun to be here.