Texas A&M track and field coach Pat Henry has a to-do list. But in this case, the more he and his team do, the longer the list grows.

His list includes athletes that qualified for the NCAAs last year.

"Our first year here or second year here, we had two or three people," said Henry, who is in his fourth year at A&M. "This list is getting bigger, which should make us more competitive."

He then pointed at another list and said, "now we have to get more [athletes] from here over to here."

There were 18 athletes' names on the sheet of paper that consisted of qualifiers for the indoor and/or outdoor NCAA Championships. Those 18 helped A&M's women finish 13th indoors and fourth outdoors nationally and the men take 32nd and 22nd, respectively. The women also won both Big 12 titles.

If they stay healthy and perform well, Henry says there is no reason the Aggies can't match or improve on those numbers.

"I think we are going to be better this year than last year. I feel comfortable in saying that but it comes back to being healthy at the right time frame," said Henry, who won 27 national titles in 17 years at LSU. "We are getting the right personnel in the school. We are not missing on anybody. We are not getting everybody we want. Nobody does that, but we are getting people we think should be at Texas A&M."

A&M has the nation's No. 1 women's recruiting class according to Track and Field News. And although Henry waits to see how they perform individually before talking about newcomers, he believes the women have the capability to live up to that ranking. He's also extremely pleased with the men's recruiting class.

Some of those highly regarded freshmen along with a limited number of returning athletes, none of which made it to the NCAAs, will open the indoor season for A&M at the University of Houston Leonard Hilton Memorial on Friday. The full team gets underway with the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas the following week.

Even though the outdoor season follows the indoor campaign, Henry believes outdoor results can lead to a better indoor season. It's his theory for why A&M has done better outdoors than indoors, which this year culminates on March 14-15 in Fayetteville, Ark.

"I think you win indoors with more experience, people that came off great outdoor seasons to compete indoors," Henry said. "And I just think [in the past] we've worked with younger teams and that takes more time."

With that philosophy, A&M should have some momentum coming into this indoor season.

Three women -- Elizabeth Adeoti, Porscha Lucas and Simone Facey -- from the national championship squad in the 400-meter relay return. A&M's women also have Katie Baker, Ashika Charan, Yasmine Regis, Jennifer Williams and Sandy Wooten back for the indoor season. Michelle Inocencio and Jessica Wingfield qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet in the javelin.

On the men's side, Zuheir Sharif is best among those in the jumps, having gone to the NCAAs in the triple jump. The men also have sprinters Richard Adu-Bobie, Morquise Cleveland, Chris Dykes, Bryant McCombs, Justin Oliver, A.C. Robinson and hurdler Nick Robinson coming of NCAA qualifying seasons.

Only seven of the above athletes are seniors this season.

Adu-Bobie and Facey can take the outdoors experience factor to another level, having competed for their countries at last summer's World Championships.

Facey earned a silver medal for the Jamaican 400 relay team, while Adu-Bobie was a member of the Canadian sprint relay.

Henry watched the two from afar while he coached Team USA to a record medal haul at the World Championships in Japan.

"It just strengthens your resolve as a coach," Henry said of the experience. "I tell our staff and I might tell the athletes working with the best in the world just strengthens your thinking, strengthens your resolve that the things we continue to do with young people [at A&M] we continue to do with the best in the world, too."

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.