Track & Field Report: SEC Championships represent the best of the best

On Thursday, Pat Henry and the Texas A&M track & field team will begin the 2023 SEC Outdoor Championships in Baton Rouge. The legendary coach joined TexAgs Radio to detail the highly competitive meet and how he thinks the Maroon & White will fare.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• I'm glad we're not in Fayetteville. We're in Baton Rouge. If we're in Fayetteville, we're going to be late.
   
• The SEC Championships is the best track meet in the country. There is no question about that. This is extremely competitive. If you look at the number of top teams in this conference that are among the top 10 in the country, you know people can dominate. This is a very competitive meet, and it's really the first time the teams all see each other to compete. We see you from time to time, but we never get everybody together all at once except for this meet.
   
• It's like this every year. That's just the SEC. It'll be this competitive every year, and that's why you come to the SEC if you're a great track athlete. This is where you want to be. You have to be competitive and a member of a team. We're made out to be an individual sport. People say that about track, swimming, golf and tennis. We're as much of a team sport as anybody. You have a chance to contribute to a team, and that's what this weekend is about. We don't have a conference record. It's just one time that we meet for a conference tournament.
   
• With our program, I try to have people in every event area. We don't have discus or javelin indoors. We have a lot of different events outdoors. It's a different track meet. Most times, the people who are successful indoors will be successful outdoors. We didn't have a great year indoors, so we'll see what we're made of. Still, we've finished sixth or seventh in this meet and gone on to win the national championship three weeks later. We'll see how this goes.
   
• We score eight places at this meet. Nine people will go to the final in every event, and eight will score. The preliminary rounds will run seven heats in the women's 200-meter. We'll advance the winner of each heat and the next two fastest times. This meet is a lot of fun and very competitive.
   
• We've had some good competitions as a group and a scattering of good performances, but this is a day where you have to have a whole lot of people have a great day on the same day just to be competitive in this meet. We have young people and a few older people in our group. This is a tough year because I cannot replace an Athing Mu or any of our four Olympians and three people who turned pro. It's hard to replace that talent quickly. It's a big recruiting year, and we've had a scattering of good performances. It's time to do it on the same day.
   
• Connor Schulman came to Texas A&M as an academic scholarship guy. I can split my scholarships. On the men's side, we have 12 scholarships, but we brought 30 people. We have a lot of people that get very little scholarship. Connor was competitive in his first and second years, but he worked very hard last summer. He trimmed down and gained a little bit of muscle. He's good at hurdles and is getting better all of the time. Look for him to be very competitive. He does not like to lose, and that's what you need.