Quotables: Pre-SEC Indoor Championships
Feb 23, 2021 | Track and Field
Head Coach Pat Henry
on the SEC Championships:
"The Southeastern Conference Championships is the best meet in the country, it's not even close and it's the best meet of the year. Everyone of these schools in the SEC wants to be successful, just like every other sport. There's a lot of pride in this conference and everyone wants to be good. What wins meets like this are the third, fourth, fifth and sixth places, that's what wins it. It's depth that wins this kind of track meet, the one National Championships doesn't take the same kind of depth to win. It takes elites to win the National meet. For this one you gotta have great ones but you also need to have depth."
on the depth of the women's team:
"Besides Athing Mu, Charokee Young has the fastest 400m time in country. She needs to have a big meet for us and I think she is capable of running faster than what she has already run. Same thing with Syaira Richardson, she is a great contributor to our program and she needs to have a good meet. We're just getting back Laila Owens, a freshman, I think she has the ability to be near the top. Lamara Distin has jumped 5-11.75 and we stopped her at that height because it's really the first time she's been healthy, those kind of people have to step up and get in the mix."
on how 400m and 800m runners have become a staple at Texas A&M:
"I love the team aspect of track, I think you develop a team around quarter-milers that can step down and run 200m or maybe they're an 800m person that runs 400m. Those are the kind of athletes that you can kind of be a holding block for the middle of your team, that's the group that you can get them to run a good short relay and run a good long relay with those athletes. For me that's where I've always liked the opportunity to develop a team with those kind of athletes."
on junior Tyra Gittens:
"The thing about Tyra is that you can't put her on the track without her having a 100% effort, she just doesn't operate that way. I'd love to be able to tune someone back every once in awhile and some people you can, she is not one of those you can tune back. She wants to be the SEC champion, that's important to her. She's gonna try to win three events, that's the way she is going to be. That's who she is every single day, she is kind of like a rabbit in a cage when you open the door and the rabbit just takes off, that's the way she is."
on freshman Athing Mu:
"When you watch a track athlete for years, you know when someone is really good. A collegiate environment sometimes can take time to adjust to. For Athing, it didn't take anytime at all. She's just a huge competitor and she believes in herself. She works very hard, comes to practice with a smile on her face ready to work every day. At this level if you can believe in yourself, you have an opportunity to be very successful. She's blessed but she's worked very hard to get to where she is. She can get on the track and do exactly what she wants to do, but she is also a leader. We've had some pretty good half-milers, Donavan Brazier, Jazmine Fray and Sammy Watson, they were great half-milers for us so she knew we had a plan and she bought into it. She has been a pleasure to work with, she is very unique."
Senior Bryce Deadmon
on heading into the SEC Championships:
"Honestly, I feel good and I'm really excited for the competition. There are four to five of top 400m runners in the nation that are in the SEC. I'm excited to go into this race and see what is going to happen, you're definitely going to see some fast times."
on being the defending 400m and having a target on his back:
"I don't really think of it as having a target on my back. I always tell myself that if I just do the best that I can do and run near my fastest time than there is nothing really more I can do. It would be really cool to repeat."
on his mindset of running the open 400m compared to the 4x400m:
"I look at it the same but if anything I feel like the 4x400m is more demanding because I have three other people depending on me to do what I need to get done and I would hate to let them down. I go into them both with the same mindset but I feel more down on myself if I was to do poorly on the relay than in my individual event."
on what drives him:
"I'm always in competition with myself and I'm always trying to get the best out of myself whether that be in track or any other area in my life. I hate having the feeling that I'm leaving something out there when I know I can get more out of myself, so that is definitely makes me go."
Freshman Athing Mu
on the fast start at Texas A&M:
"Honestly, I don't think I have wrapped my mind around it yet. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to realize what I've been doing now until I'm like 50. I just go day-by-day, whatever I do it happens, whatever I don't do, I don't. I just keep on moving forward."
on being successful in the 400m:
I wish I could really tell you why but I'm not sure. I think my training is one big part of that. The 800m is my main event and I've gained a lot of strength in that event, for me to drop down to a shorter distance race I've been able to carry that strength with me and helps me finish with whatever I have.
on remaining motivated:
At the end of the day, no matter what I do there is always more that can be done. I've broken a collegiate record but there is still more that can be done and there are American records, World Junior records and World records. There is always another level that you can achieve.
on mindest when the gun goes off:
"I've always been thinking to just get the best out of whatever event that I'm doing. Coach Henry has said multiple times that we don't know when the season is going to be over, anything can happen and we can be hit with a quarantine or another pandemic. I'm just trying to go at it every meet that I can and get the most out of what I can do."
on recruitment and what stood out about Texas A&M:
"It was really what felt like home to me. Coming on my visit to Texas A&M, I wasn't even on campus yet and we were in the hotel when I was talking to the person at the front desk about where I can go to the gym or go run and he was really nice and welcoming. It led to Chris Harrell and Brian Bancroft, the team administrators, who organized my visit and the athletes here along with the coaches, it just all fell in line and I was wowed by how it felt like home. I had not gotten that feeling from any visit that I went on."
on her mental strength:
"After my junior year running outdoors, I think that year completely changed me mentally. That time made me realize that I am a good athlete and I can do great things, but at the end of the day it's really what I want to do and me being able to do it, no one else is going to do it but me. I have to focus on myself and getting myself mentally prepared and mentally ok for any race and what is coming up for me. I don't really like to think too hard about things, I just like to have fun and just do it on a day-to-day basis rather than think about everything that has to be done."
Players Mentioned
