WOU alum Zach Holloway enters his third year as the head cross country coach and eighth year as a coach overall for the WOU cross cross country and track and field programs heading into the 2025-26 season.
In each of his first two seasons as cross country head coach in 2023 and 2024, the WOU men's team took fourth place and the women's team took sixth at the GNAC Championships.
A former distance runner for the Wolves, Holloway made his return to Monmouth in the fall of 2018 after completing his graduate work at Adams State. Holloway coordinates the recruiting efforts for the track and field programs. While recruiting and working primarily with distance, Holloway is also the meet operations director for all of the fall cross country meets on the Ash Creek Preserve. He has been instrumental in helping run multiple big events on campus including the Ash Creek Invitational, The Mike Johnson Classic (formerly The Sundowner), hosting the Pac-12 Championships, the GNAC Championships and the NCAA Division II West Regionals.
In his time coaching at WOU, Holloway - who took over coaching the distance events in fall 2020 - helped WOU sweep the 2023 men's and women's GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championship titles (the men's first indoor title since 2012 and the women's first ever indoor championship) and the women to the 2022 GNAC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Title (first in 12 years). He coached the school record holder in the men's indoor 5,000 (Bailey Smith - 14:32) and the women's outdoor 5,000 (Kyla Potratz - 17:04.29). He also coached Hunter Hutton to a NCAA Championships men's finalist appearance, the 2023 DMR team to the No. 8 spot in GNAC history (9:46) and overall has coached 21 All-West Region student-athletes.
At Adams State, Holloway was a part of a coaching staff that won four NCAA Division II National Championship teams, including helping the Grizzlies to back-to-back men’s cross country titles in 2016 and 2017. The women's team won the 2017 NCAA DII Indoor Track & Field title and gave Adams State a cross country sweep by joining the men's squad as national champions in 2017.
On the track, Holloway primarily worked with the distance corps and assisted with the 400-meter and 400-meter hurdlers. As well as his coaching duties, Holloway was a graduate assistant and instructor in the Human Performance & Physical Education program and taught courses in coaching and sport psychology.
At Western Oregon, Holloway was a four-year member of the Wolves’ track & field program and a NCAA provisional qualifier on three occasions. He continues to reside on the school’s all-time indoor top-10 performance list in the 3,000 and 5,000 and on the outdoor list in the steeplechase. Holloway was a USATF Junior National Championship qualifier in the steeplechase.
In addition to his work as a player and coach, Holloway earned a pair of certifications in USTFCCCA Track and Field Technical Certification and USTFCCCA Strength & Conditioning Certification.
Holloway hails from Brownsville, Oregon, and is a Central Linn High School Alum (2012).
