Track & Field Report: Pat Henry recaps men's first SEC Indoor title

Head track & field coach Pat Henry joined us on Tuesday's edition of TexAgs Live to recap the SEC Indoor Championships, where the men's team claimed first place and the women came in fifth. Henry also looked ahead to the NCAA Indoor Championship on March 14.

Key notes from Pat Henry interview

• The men’s team won, and the women’s team finished fifth. The women did a good job. We just don't have the depth to win that kind of track meet. On the men's side, we have great depth and some good up-front performers. We have a good men's team. To win the SEC is a major accomplishment.
   
• We have a different depth within the group. We have people in all event areas, and that is extremely difficult to do in our sport because you have to spread the scholarship money out. You have to have long jumpers, sprinters, pole vaulters, middle distance and long distance. That is hard to do. We put together a good group, the staff has worked really hard and this is years in the making. This didn't happen in one year.
   
• A program is not a one-year deal. It takes time to develop a program. It can go in and out, we have years where we win national championships. Then we have years where we are not really pleased. It's about getting it back together and doing the things we need to do to get better. It's cyclical. We have a men's group that is doing really well.
   
• The 4x400-meter team did really well. We had to beat Arkansas, and we won in the relay. We had to be no less than second place to overcome the three points. Our guys didn't want to be beaten, and they haven't been beaten this year. It was a great finish to a great track meet.
   
• There were 5,000 people there, and that's the first time we've had a major championship in that facility. In the building, numerous times during the week, you couldn't hear yourself talk. It was so loud.
   
• We live by the model of everyone having a good day on the same day. That is extremely difficult to do, and we didn't do that. We were a little bit short. I thought we had a pretty sure winner in our pole vaulter, and he didn't win. We had a couple of guys that underperformed. We entered 27 men, and for the most part, we did what I thought we were capable of doing.
   
• Ja'Qualon Scott is our short hurdler. He was third in the US Championships. He is a great sprinter, and his race continues to get better. For Scott to be second was a big-time effort.
   
• Cooper Cawthra has run 3:54 in the mile, and that didn't qualify at the national meet. He's a little bit off of reaching the top-16 in the country. It's incredible how fast things are.
   
• Khybah Dawson came in and is a junior. He hasn't hit this year, but he did when it counted. I think he's got the potential to score at the next meet. We need that to happen.
   
• I'm pleased with our quarter milers, 200m and jumpers. We don't have the depth to win a meet like this. It takes more people than what we have. We have a good group of people.
   
• Winny Bii is a good example of someone who comes in and leads the country, but we don't have a lot of people who are leading the country.
   
• Camryn Dickson and Jasmine Montgomery are going to be successful.
   
• We won’t have much of a difference in mindset at the NCAA Indoor Championship. We have never been to the facility. It's a new one. It's about everybody keeping their eye on the target and understanding what it takes to have success. What is your contribution? Everyone looks at track as an individual sport, and it is, but you have to put it together to make a team. You might not be running a 4x400, but what are you doing to contribute?