April 29, 2026 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
The 2025-26 track and field season, which has been a very successful one for the Wolves under interim coach Zach Holloway, is coming to a close over the coming weeks. The outdoor portion of the season has seen multiple Wolves win GNAC athlete of the week honors and new entries into the program’s top 10 all-time list, which felt like each week.
Their final meet prior to the GNAC Multis was at the Nancy & Norm Berney Classic at Corban University April 25 and saw the Wolves win in six different events. Jacob Behrman won the men’s shot put, Samuel Fuentes won the men’s 1,500-meter, Ray Gerrard won men’s discus and the 4×400 men’s relay team, made up of Owen Frazier, Teo Le, Josiah Del Prado and Brennen Murphy, took first place as well. For the women, Gwen Rydberg won the hammer throw and Izzy Boyd won the shot put.
In the prior week, Jazmine Dotson added herself to Western history as the third woman to run a sub-12-second 100-meter dash with a time of 11.92 seconds. Landon Theisen moved to third in school history and top ten in GNAC history in the men’s 800-meter, Amelia Merritt moved up one spot in the school’s top ten for women’s 800-meter, Easton Pomrankey broke a personal record in the men’s 1,500-meter, which was already the seventh-best time in school history and Alecia Lemeza completed the second-highest jump in school women’s pole vault history. Murphy went on to have another excellent performance at the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate & Beach Invitational in California for the 400-meter race with a time of 46.78 seconds. Not only did the time break Murphy’s own school record, but it was the second-fastest time in GNAC history and would help earn him GNAC men’s athlete of the week. Other school records set in the outdoor season included first-year Maren Anderson beating the women’s 5,000-meter record by more than 20 seconds and junior Ray Gerrard setting the men’s discus record.
It was also a successful week away from the track and field for the Wolves, as it was announced that 15 members of the women’s team and 13 members of the men’s team were named to the all-GNAC academic team, which is reserved for athletes who are in their second year competing collegiately and maintain a 3.2 GPA. The program also announced the additions of three new recruits on social media, Ava Greene from Elmira, Oregon, Ava Hanson, a transfer from MT Hood Community College and Zackaharie Vargas from Visalia, California.
While the GNAC Multis in Ellensburg, Washington, are still ongoing at the time of writing, Olivia Boyd won the women’s heptathlon high jump for the Wolves on day one.
Next for the Wolves is the GNAC Outdoor Championships May 4-5, also in Ellensburg, followed by the Oregon Twilight May 8 and the Portland Twilight May 9. In the event that any Western athletes qualify for outdoor nationals, those will take place from May 21-23 in Emporia, Kansas.
Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu
