Nov. 19 2025 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
On Nov. 8, the Wolves concluded their 2025 cross-country season with the NCAA West Regionals held right here in Monmouth, where the men’s team finished eighth and the women’s team finished 17th. Matthew Resnik and Remedan Seman from the men’s team and Kyla Potratz from the women’s team had All-Region performances, with Resnik finishing 21st in the men’s 10K, Seman finishing 24th in the 10K and Potratz finishing 25th in the women’s 6K.
Resnik, who overcame an injury sustained during the track season, said of his regional finish, “It means a lot. Definitely. Coming from last year, got injured during track season, so didn’t know how this year would pan out, but you know, going All-Region makes me feel pretty confident in myself.”
Seman and Potratz also both saw significant improvements. “I think my freshman year, I was just getting used to it, and then last year I was really happy with my season, but I think I was 55th or something like that at regionals. So to be top 25, I just wasn’t expecting that going in this season so I was pretty happy with it and excited,” Potratz said.
For Seman, it’s a similar story. He said that he didn’t make the traveling roster in his first season before finishing 90th in his sophomore season and then now finishing All-Region. All three credit head coach Zach Holloway for their ability to improve, overcome challenges and find high levels of success. Holloway, who is a Western Oregon alumnus and was a part of the track and field program as a student athlete, just completed his third season as the cross-country head coach and, over the summer, became the interim head track and field coach. As an athlete at Western, Holloway is in the top 10 highest all-time performers in school history for the indoor 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter as well as the outdoor steeplechase. He’s also racked up an impressive list of achievements as a coach in a short amount of time, helping both the men’s and women’s teams win respective GNAC Indoor Championships in 2023, was a part of the coaching staff for the 2022 women’s GNAC Outdoor team title and won four national titles as a part of the Adams State coaching staff in 2016 and 2017.
“Zach’s really good at personalizing the training. He’ll talk to individual people and there’ll be like 10 different workouts going on at a time because he just will work with you.” Potratz said.
Resnik and Seman both agreed. “Zach’s just a great coach,” Resnik said, “Always likes to talk to you no matter what. Wants to see how you think about whatever he thinks. He’s a very knowledgeable guy, very smart but he still comes and asks you how you’re doing, how you’re feeling, what you think you need personally, so it’s definitely a 50/50 I feel like with that.” Seman added, “He’s a great coach. I think it’s because of him mostly, at least for me, that I got top 25.”
In addition to the all-region performances from Resnik, Seman and Potratz, the Wolves also received scoring from Ethan Bothwell, 29th in men’s 10K, Samuel Fuentes, 55th in men’s 10K and Isaiah Rodriguez, who finished 94th in the men’s 10K. For the women’s 6K, Adele Beckstead finished 79th, Jazmine Liebl finished 98th, Nettle Grey finished 121st and Charlotte Gardner finished 158th.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have very young rosters with no seniors in either of them, which means it’s likely that both can return everyone, or nearly everyone, for the 2026 season. This is an exciting prospect considering the aforementioned improvements that individuals such as Resnik, Portatz and Seman have made.
Not only will they be returning and building on top of successful seasons, but others on the team will look to make similar jumps under the tutelage of Holloway. Of the listed scorers for both teams, three are first-years and two are sophomores, including Resnik. “Our team is so young,” Potratz said of the women’s team. “The majority of them are freshmen this year and we’ve already improved so much. So I’m just really excited to see another year of Zach’s training and hopefully, personally, I’d like to make it to nationals for cross, but it would also be so cool if the whole team made it. And I think that’s definitely in reach for sure.”
Seman shared similar sentiments. “I think it’s really realistic for the boys’ team to say that we can make nationals next year. We have a lot of very young guys, we’re very talented, so I think the goal is to make nationals and I think it’s very realistic if we just train consistently and be disciplined about our training.”
During the GNAC championships, the men’s team took fourth place, with Seman finishing 11th, Ethan Bothwell finishing 19th, Resnik finishing 20th, Zander Campbell finishing 27th and Samuel Fuentes finishing 40th. The women’s team took 7th with Potratz finishing fourth, Adele Beckstead finishing 30th, Jazmine Liebl finishing 36th, Maslin Sigler finishing 40th and Nettle Grey finishing 46th. Of note is that all three GNAC runners who finished ahead of Potratz were seniors. This will make Potratz the highest finishing returning runner in the GNAC next year, which of course puts her right in the mix of favorites for the individual GNAC title next season.
Because of the youth on both teams, the leadership structure is a bit different than what’s typical for a team. In most cases, the seniors tend to take over as team leaders, but without any seniors on these two teams, the Wolves use a sort of leadership by committee approach. “I feel like all of us worked on coaching each other, making each other feel like we’re also included,” explained Potratz.
This leadership and positive culture has also extended past the track and courses, with 12 cross-country athletes between both teams making the academic all-GNAC list, with eight from the women’s team and four from the men’s team. Of the eight from the women’s team, those who were selected were Charlotte Gardner — who was one of seven runners in the conference on the women’s side to maintain a 4.0 — Amelia Merritt, Abbigale Elliott, Kaydence Nguyen, Kyla Potratz, Holly Hutton, Madison Huri and Natalie Perez. For the men’s team, James Lackey, Ethan Bothwell, Grant Bohannon and Remedan Seman were all selected. In order for a student athlete to receive All-GNAC academic honors, they must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.2 while competing.
In between now and the next cross-country season, the Wolves will have an indoor track season and an outdoor track season ahead of them. It’s a quick turnaround, but one that athletes must be prepared for. On Dec. 4, just under a month after regionals, the indoor track and field season begins at the Silver State Invitational & Multis in Reno, Nevada. “We don’t really have a big break,” Seman said, “But we love what we do, so we do it.”
Speaking to the love of running and what got them into cross-country and the general track and field umbrella, Kyla Potratz said it was seeing her sister run while she was growing up. “My older sister ran and so I just loved going to her meets and just the atmosphere at races and stuff was so cool. So I was like, ‘Hey, I want to be like my big sister.’” She continued, “This is just such a cool balance of you’re pushing yourself every single time trying to be better and you doing that helps pull your teammates.”
It’s a similar story for Resnik, who explained, “My dad grew me up running. He always did triathlons, ironmans, all that stuff. So I’m kind of just used to it. And then same thing with the individual sport, you’re just working on yourself, but no matter what, it’s always at the end of the day five. Five men score, five women score. So it’s a team, it comes down to the team as much as it is individual so just the culture of it, it’s always fun for sure.”
All three also shared stories about the culture of cross-country and track and field. Both Potratz and Seman specifically shared stories of opposing athletes supporting them during meets. Potratz mentioned that during regionals, an athlete she was racing against encouraged her to keep pushing. For Seman, it was an athlete from Chico State who encouraged him and helped him set a personal record. When asked what about the sport of running creates such a welcoming environment, Resnik said, “I think everybody knows that it’s just a hard sport. No matter what, if you’re showing up every day, everyone knows you’re putting in that hard-ass work.”
As mentioned, the indoor track season starts Dec. 4 and will run through Feb. 18 with the GNAC Indoor Championships in Spokane. From there, the team and individuals can qualify for nationals, which for indoor track will be held in Indianapolis, March 13 and 14. After that, the team jumps right into the outdoor season and April 10 and 11, students can mark their calendars for John Knight Twilight Night hosted on the track at McArthur Field.
“I just think it’s really fun,” Potratz said. “Some of the distance events are twilight, so you’re racing under the lights, which is such a cool vibe and experience. And yeah, it’s really fun when there’s a ton of people there cheering for you and your school.”
Seman added, “I think a lot of families show up at this meet. They can’t show up to out-of-state meets, most of them at least, and I think it’s fun to have your family here watching you race.”
The outdoor season will conclude with the GNAC Multis Championship April 27 and 28, the GNAC Outdoor Championships May 4 and 5 and the NCAA Outdoor Nationals in Emporia, Kansas, from May 21 through May 23.
“It’s not just our distance team. Our sprints team, multis team, throws team, everything,” Resnik continued, saying, “We’re looking pretty good this year. Hopefully, we can bring home a team title, so if you can come out, for sure come out.” As discussed earlier, coach Zach Holloway became the interim head track and field coach over the summer, and it’ll be exciting to see how the team does with him at the helm for both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
For more information about the cross-country and track and field teams, such as upcoming events and results, students can go to wouwolves.com and find information there or follow them on Instagram @wou_xctf. Make sure to keep an eye on both teams for their upcoming seasons and see how the team continues to improve and set new highs.
Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu
