T&F Report: Henry 'pleased' with success at Charlie Thomas Invitational

Logging 10 wins at the Charlie Thomas Invitational and the No. 1 time in the country in the men's 4x400-meter, Texas A&M track & field is rolling through its spring season. Legendary Pat Henry joined TexAgs Live to look back on the weekend and preview what's ahead.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• We had 10 wins at the Charlie Thomas Invitational. We had a good meet. I was very pleased with the performances and the good crowd, and I was very pleased with the competition.
   
• The men's 4x400 has the No. 1 time in the country with 3:02.88. I was a little bit surprised by the time, but not by the effort because the guys are running well right now. Normally, we don't run that fast this early. It takes a great competition to run fast. You play to the competition, if the competition is really good you have the opportunity to run fast, if the competition is not very good you really don't have that opportunity. This time, decent competition, but we ran fast. 
   
• Heather Abadie in the pole vault has been stuck at one height, and it's been tough going for her, so it's good to see her score this weekend. She's doing well.
   
• Jermaisha Arnold in the 400m, right now, every time she touches the track, she's just getting a little bit better. That's the No. 4 time in the NCAA. 
   
• Those three efforts this weekend kind of highlighted what we did. We had a lot of winners and some good things happen. It capped off a good weekend.
   
• When you think about three inches, you don't think about it being much of a height difference, but when you're a pole vaulter, just a little bit makes a difference. The biggest difference is the way you think. You're a little bit scared of that next bar sometimes. It takes this kind of effort, this kind of repeat of a good effort to change that mindset, and that's what we're trying to do right now with Heather. 
   
• Winny Bii in the triple jump has been consistent right now, and that's probably the biggest thing for Winny. If she jumps 45-plus, she's going to be very competitive at the national championships.
   
• Kimar Farquharson with a 1:49 in the 800m. We're a little bit behind in the 800m. We caused our own problem this weekend. We're trying to run a fast time right now because you have to get a qualifying effort.
   
• Kimar happened to win it just based on some strength in the last straightaway. We've got about three or four half-milers that I think are much better than what we've done so far. Down at Clemson, we're going to try and line up this weekend and see if we can run a little bit faster. They are going to have to get into the championships.
   
• The women's 4x400 with a 3:32.51 is a good run. The competition was not as good as it takes to run much faster than that. They ran well.
   
•  Jonathan Chung, from right here in town, ran 8:13. Jonathan is a really good, competitive guy. I hope we can get him in this next meet, I just don't know if he can really get in there. We're going to find out. He's a gutsy guy, but he's going to have to take a chance and do some things he hasn't done so far. Jonathan is a good athlete, and he's doing really well.
   
• Kennady Fontenot in the 3000m with a 9:23.61. She's a great competitor. She's a steeplechaser outdoors. I don't think Kennady really knows what she's capable of doing. She kind of holds back and then has too much the last 400 or 600 meters of the race. She has to figure out how she is going to use and spread that stuff out over a 3K. That's a hard thing to do. She's kind of like Shewaye Johnson. It's the same thing in the 5K. They have to learn how to spread their efforts out over the entire race. Young people think they can wait until the end of the race and run fast. You really can't run fast that way. You have to spread it out.
   
• Next is at Clemson at the Tiger Paw Invitational. This is a great competition because there will probably be 30 or 40 institutions here this weekend. The problem at Clemson, they have a good track, but they don't have much seating around the track. The weather might be OK because you have to warm up outside at Clemson.
   
• Their outdoor track is adjacent to the indoor so you kind of roll the dice. You hope that the weather is good enough that you can warm up outside. They have a huge tent they put up, and they keep the tent heated. It's a difficult venue. It's a real challenge if the weather is poor, so we're praying we have good weather. It's a great track to run on, and it's good competition, so it's worth going.