Track & Field Report: Henry's Aggies headed to Boston & Albuquerque

After a trio of school records were broken at the Ted Nelson Invitational, legendary coach Pat Henry joined TexAgs Live as Texas A&M track & field will split travel between the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston and the New Mexico Team Open in Albuquerque this weekend.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• The Ted Nelson Invitational was a good meet. We broke both school records in the mile, men and women. I think the men's run was a little bit better. Cooper Cawthra with a 3:58 is a great time. Then we had another run at 4:02, another run at 4:03, and then another run at 4:05. We've got a good group right now. Jaiya Covington in the hurdles, this is her first time on the track this year. She'd had a little bit of injury, and this was the first time she's been healthy. She ran real well and broke the school record, and I think that's the leading time in the country, 8:01. The young lady out of Houston is doing real well.
   
• Debora Cherono ran the women's mile at 4:40.94. She may not be a miler. She may be a 3k or a 5k girl, but I don't know enough about her yet. Just watching her in training, we'll find out a little bit more about her strengths. She showed some really good things in that mile this week. The girl she was running with was really good. I was happy to see her grab on and try to stay on her, but then the last lap, she looked really strong. So she beat her, and she ran real well. We'll see. I think she's a good one.
   
• In a lot of races, I'll talk to a person before the race starts about running between your lines. Don't worry about who else. Let's see what you have in the tank and see what you're capable of doing. The environment is there. You don't worry about that. You have to be doing what we're trying to accomplish out of practice. I talk about staying between the lines on a lot of our stuff, like our short hurdles. They cannot worry about the person next to them. It's there, and the competition is there, but they have to worry about technique. You get to a mile or above, even 800 meters, you have to have some skills of being able to technically run a race that you deal with the other talent and beat the other talent. That race is not necessarily about time. It's about who you beat.
   
• Cooper and that group, there were several guys right in that mix. There are a couple of other guys from other schools in there, too. It was a great mile. Cooper was our school record holder going in, right at four minutes flat, a two-second PR is big time. He's going to have to run just a little bit faster to get to the national meet. Even at 3:58, years ago, that would have been world headlines. I mean, 10 years ago, that was unbelievable for most people, but it's changed a lot.
   
• Jaiya was SEC women's runner of the week and the No. 1 time in the country at 8:01 in the 60-meter hurdles. Second race, she had a good race. She had a good competitor right next to her, so it made for an excellent competition for her. First time on the track this season. Sometimes, you run your absolute best the first time you touch the track. That puts a little pressure on you. We'll see how she does now with this week.
   
• I've been fortunate enough to win enough of these that you don't know, you know you're going in in the mix. That's what we want to do. We want to go into those championships in the mix. If we're in the mix, we'll have a good opportunity. Because I think we have a good environment, we have a good team environment, and we have people that care for each other. On the teams that win, not all are that way. I've had some teams that are very talented, but they're not cohesive. It's more of a challenge that way for us. This is a very cohesive group, on the men's side especially. Ladies are doing better. On the men's side, it's very cohesive because they know they're talented, and they want to win.
   
• Auhmad Robinson ran a 20:57 in the 200-meter. On our record board, he ranks No. 3 all-time. That's one of the top couple of times in the country. We don't run 200 meters very often. He's a quarter-miler. Now, all of a sudden, he's starting to think he's a short sprinter. Auhmad is really talented, and he's a little guy. He is a talented young man. To run that fast, this early, was great to see.
   
• The team is split this week. We're leaving for New Mexico tonight, and we're leaving for Boston at noon. This is the kind of trip I don't like. It's the reality of the sport. You're forced into doing what you have to do to get this done. Because ours is about getting the top 16 times in the country. You have to be in the top 16 times to go to the national meet. Boston has got a little bit of a reputation for having a good environment for some distance people. Sometimes, that environment for distance people is more important than it is for sprinters. I'm sending 12 athletes to Boston. We're taking 52 to Albuquerque.
   
• Certain markets are known for faster times. Boston has a lot of people up there. Indoor track is big time. In the East, lots and lots of facilities. Lots of people compete indoors, just because it's too cold to get outside. They've got a good distance environment, and they've tried to establish that. We ran the national meet there last year, and it was probably the most-dead environment I've ever run a national meet at. They might know about the distances, but they don't know about anything else. I say that that's not true, but the environment just wasn't that good.
   
• We're relatively healthy. We've got a couple of people that are contributors that have got to get healthy. They're getting close to not being able to help us indoors. If they don't come around here in the next week or so, it's going to be hard for them to be successful indoors. We'll see.