AUSTIN, Texas – Several top members of the Texas A&M track & field team were forced to sit out the 2021 Texas Relays due to COVID-19 reasons, head coach Pat Henry said ahead of his team’s short trip to Austin. The Aggies were slated to field a strong team at the meeting that runs from Thursday, March 25 to Saturday, March 27 at Mike A. Myers Stadium, but a number of the program’s stars had to be withdrawn because of COVID-19 contact tracing guidelines.
Missing Stars From 2021 Texas Relays
Among the athletes missing this year’s event are 400m runner Charokee Young and standout 400-800 freshman runner Athing Mu who was slated to race in the women’s 1500m against Baylor’s Aaliyah Miller, who was the NCAA Indoor Championships 800m champion earlier this month.
A number of Aggies were also missing from the sprint events.
Meanwhile, although he expects some good performances from the group of athletes making the trip, Henry admits that it was disappointing to have to break up his group.
“It’s discouraging,” the experienced coach said on the Texas A&M official website. “We can’t quite get past all this contact tracing. It got the best of our men’s team during the indoor season and now here we are minus a few of our top athletes. It changes everything we’re doing at this meet.
“We’re not changing what we’re trying to do but we just can’t do it. We’re going to line people up and we’re going to do the best that we can. These athletes that we’re taking over there are good athletes and they’re going to be ready to go.”
Texas A&M Looking To Improve In Austin
Texas A&M is entering its second week in the 2021 outdoor season, having opened the campaign with some impressive performances at the 2021 Willie Williams Classic, hosted at the Roy P. Drachman Stadium in Tucson, Arizona, last weekend.
Henry is hoping to use this weekend’s meeting to work on some of the things that probably didn’t go according to plan in the last outing.
“This is a good opportunity to build on what we did and did not do last week,” the coach noted. “This is the kind of competition we need, I hope we’re a little more prepared as we go forward.”
Follow live results as the meeting unfolds.
