{"id":24713,"date":"2026-03-04T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=24713"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:53:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:53:37","slug":"brand-new-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/brand-new-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand new records"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brennen Murphy mid-race on day two of the GNAC Indoor Championships. | Photo from @wou_xctf on Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 4, 2026 |<\/span>\u00a0Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Four school records were broken at the GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, which took place from Feb. 16-17. Jack Burgett broke his own record in the 60-meter dash at 6.75 seconds, Tate Herber set the record for the 60-meter hurdles at 8.24 seconds and Brennen Murphy broke the 400-meter dash record at 47.13 seconds, as well as his own record in the 200-meter dash at 21.24 seconds. Murphy would go on to win the men\u2019s 200-meter conference championship the next day with a time of 21.3 seconds, but came up just short of the 400-meter title. Regardless, his efforts still led to him being named Male Track Athlete of the Meet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Murphy said about winning the award. \u201cEspecially after losing the 400. I\u2019ve won that one the past couple of years. To come back, win the 200, that meant a lot to me.\u201d Murphy\u2019s record clears the next best time in Western history by a full second. When asked about their performances, Burgett and Murphy both discussed the importance of mental preparation and visualization to achieve high-quality performance. \u201cBefore my race, almost all my races, I meditate for at least ten minutes,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cBoth when I\u2019m back in the hotel and right before the race.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burgett, who went into the meet having strained his hamstring just a couple of months prior, discussed the ways his mental preparation helped him overcome the roadblocks that came with the injury. \u201cRunning on a strained hammy, you could injure yourself anytime, even if it\u2019s a little tight \u2026 but there\u2019s a lot of visualization and just practicing it over and over in your head,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Burgett and Murphy were also dealing with sickness in the lead-up to the meet but were able to use their strong preparation to push past it as well as prepare for worst-case scenarios, such as forgetting a jersey or spikes, being ill or other unforeseen circumstances that could go wrong. \u201cYou just visualize that and then how you would get through it. Just kind of preparing for (the) worst case scenario,\u201d Burgett said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for initial reactions to setting the new school records, both athletes kept a focus on what was ahead. Murphy explained, \u201cI was pretty excited, the time clocks up on the board, so you know instantly, but I was pretty excited. But yeah, I was focused on the next day.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A school rarely sees its two best runners in its history for an event competing at the same time, but that\u2019s currently the case here in Monmouth for the 60-meter hurdles. Tate Herber, a sophomore out of Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, surpassed the previous record \u2014 one that teammate Jackson McQuain, a junior from Beaverton and transfer from Clark Community College, was a co-owner of \u2014 by just a tenth of a second, putting the two right next to each other at the top of school record books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from the new record holders, other members of the team had successful showings as well. Sophomore Jordan Vega from Independence clocked the sixth fastest time in the 60-meter dash at 6.93 seconds. Jackson McQuain qualified for the finals in the 60-meter hurdles, while senior Landon Theisen got second place in the 800 and scored the eighth-best time in school history at 1:51.41. First-year Maren Anderson scored the third-best time in Western history for the women\u2019s 1500-meter with a time of 4:56.87, the women\u2019s team in the 4×400-meter relay had the eighth-best time in school history with 3:55.53 and Aaliyah Taba, a member of the relay team, became the fourth woman in school history to complete the 60-meter hurdles in under nine seconds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are really popping off,\u201d coach Zach Holloway said. \u201cAnd once two or three people really start running, well, then it\u2019s just kind of infectious and the whole group is getting better.\u201d Holloway, who took over the interim head coaching role late last July after Octavious Gillespie-Bennett stepped down, has overseen the strong performances not only through the indoor season, but the cross country one as well, with Matthew Resnik, Kyla Potratz and Remedan Seman all having All-Region performances last fall. When asked about how he\u2019s handled the new role with short notice, Holloway said, \u201cIt definitely has been more responsibility and more time consuming but I\u2019ve really enjoyed having the opportunity to be more connected to the rest of the track and field team and have some more control on how we can operate our program and provide an experience and where we\u2019re traveling to and what opportunities that we can give for people and so yeah, it\u2019s been more but honestly, it\u2019s been really enjoyable to have that opportunity to do that with the team. So yeah, that\u2019s something I hope to continue to do long term.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wolves are currently preparing for the outdoor season by working on the small aspects of their fundamentals. Murphy mentioned working on his block starts. \u201cThere\u2019s like a whole science to it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut just pushing behind you, you gotta really jump out the blocks too.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The team starts their outdoor season at the Erik Anderson Memorial Ice Breaker in McMinnville, Oregon, at Linfield University, just over 25 miles away from Western\u2019s campus. The Wolves will hold their first and only home meet of the year, April 10-11, which is a great opportunity for fans and students to attend. For those who\u2019ve never been to a track meet at any level before, it\u2019s a unique viewing experience compared to other sporting events, but anyone who might be interested should take advantage while it\u2019s right here on campus. The atmosphere, while hard to describe, is enjoyable, especially on days when the weather is nice, and fans can comfortably witness high-level competition in multiple events, of which new spectators are sure to find one they enjoy. For regular updates on how the track program is doing, fans and students can follow the team on Instagram and X @wou_xctf or @WouXCTF on Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlsports@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 4, 2026 |\u00a0Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor Four school records were broken at the GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, which took place from Feb. 16-17. Jack Burgett broke his own record in the 60-meter dash at 6.75 seconds, Tate Herber set the record for the 60-meter hurdles at 8.24 seconds and Brennen Murphy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Brand new records","_seopress_titles_desc":"Program records fall at GNAC championships","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8961,8957,8955,8958,1498,8956,5276,8969,8952,310,8953,8959,8960,8964,8963,8968,8962,8966,1035,309,6836,8965,683,982,8954,684,39,8967],"class_list":["post-24713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-aaliyah-taba","tag-beaverton","tag-brennen-murphy","tag-clark-community-college","tag-corvallis","tag-crescent-valley-high-school","tag-division-ii","tag-erik-anderson-memorial-ice-breaker","tag-gnac-championships","tag-independence","tag-jack-burgett","tag-jackson-mcquain","tag-jordan-vega","tag-kyla-potratz","tag-landon-theisen","tag-linfield","tag-maren-anderson","tag-matthew-resnik","tag-mcminnville","tag-monmouth","tag-oregon-2","tag-remedan-seman","tag-student","tag-students","tag-tate-herber","tag-western","tag-wou","tag-zach-holloway"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24721,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24713\/revisions\/24721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}