Tarleton State University Athletics

The 2025-26 season will be Chris Zent's second season as a Texan serving under head coach, Bobby Carter.

Zent serves as the distance coach leading the cross country team and distance events for track and field. In his first season with the cross country program, the men's team posted a fourth place team finish, their best in program history. Individually, Angel Gomez led the pack with a 24th place finish. Four Texan men crossed between 24th and 34th place. The women finished ninth highlighted by Kaitlyn Gale's 24th-place finish. Zent took the Texans to their first NCAA South Central Region Championships in their first season eligible. The men finished ninth overall with Angel Gomez leading the way with a 46th place performance. The women finished in 27th led by Kaitlyn Gale in 84th.

The distance squad set new school indoor records in the women's 800, women's mile, and men's and women's 5000 meters. Overall, the crew posted 18 new top 10 performance bests in program history during the indoor slate. At the WAC Indoor Championships the women produced two First Team All-WAC selections and one Second Team All-WAC performance. In the outdoor season, the squad set the new school records in the men's and women's 3000-meter steeplechase and the men's 10K. At the 2025 WAC Outdoor Championships Angel Gomez notched a pair of silver medalist performances in the men's 5K and 10K. On the women's side, Kaitlyn Gale earned silver in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Ella Smart and Sage Lancaster added Second Team All-WAC performances.

The Texans sent 11 athletes ot the NCAA West First Rounds for the first time in program history. The Texans qualified in four individual events and a relay. At the NCAA National Championships, the Texans posted two First Team All-American performances, two Second Team All-American honors and an honorable mention honor. The Texan men finished 54th and the women finished 63rd in the nation.

At his first outdoor WAC Championships, the Texan women and men each recorded their highest finishes in program history. The women finished in third with 136 points and the men earned fourth with 126 points. The squad produced five event champions, two all-time WAC records, three WAC Championships records and seven school records. Victoria Cameron earned Performer of the Meet with three gold medals, scoring 22.5 points for the squad. The Texans had nine athletes win multiple medals at the outdoor conference championships.

The Texans made their first NCAA Indoor Championships with four student-athletes earning All-American Status and two First Team All-Americans. Tarleton State was the only WAC school to score in either the men or women's events at the national championships. Overall, the men finished 44th on the men's side and 51st on the women's side.

At the WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, both the men and women posted their best finishes in program history. The women scored 100 more points then the squad did at the 2024 meet. The women posted four event champions and 13 First Team All-WAC selections. Nine student-athletes also earned second-team All-WAC. On the men's side, the Texans posted a pair of WAC individual championships and five First Team performances. The men garnered six second team performances as well.

Throughout the regular season, the Texans were on a torrid pace setting new school records and top 10 performance bests. In all, the Texans broke 12 school records and set 48 new school performance top 10 bests. The Texans earned 18 WAC Athlete of the Week across both the men's and women's indoor and outdoor season, the most in the conference.

In the classroom the Texans excelled as well. Victoria Cameron was named to the CSC Third Team Academic All-America Team. In addition, the Texans earned four members to the CSC Academic All-District Team. Throughout both semesters, the program tallied 77 Academic All-WAC selections.

He joined the Texans' staff in the summer of 2024 after most recently serving at UTEP as an assistant distance coach and operations director with the Track and Field and Cross Country programs for the past two seasons. Prior to his time in El Paso, he had college coaching experience at both Ranger College (2021-22) and New Mexico State (2019-21). He also spent eight seasons as a high school cross country coach at Deer Valley High School (2011-2019).
 
During his time with the Miners he served as the operations director and assistant distance coach. During that time, Zent managed team travel, managing equipment for student-athletes, and assisting in management of the 2024 CUSA Outdoor Track and Field Conference Championships. He also assisted with UTEP distance runners throughout the 2023-2024 seasons. These included a CUSA Cross Country individual champion in Victor Kibiego, as well as NCAA Cross Country Championship qualifiers Kibiego and Titus Cheruiyot. During the outdoor season, Sandra Maiyo won the CUSA Outdoor Track and Field 10000 meters and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships as well.
 
Zent served as the head coach for Cross Country and Track and Field at Ranger College for the 2021-22 season. He led both the men's and women's programs to two NJCAA Region V Cross Country Championships and a men's appearance at the 2021 NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.
 
His first collegiate coaching opportunity, he served as a volunteer assistant at New Mexico State for a pair of seasons. During that time period, Aggie distance runners broke numerous school records and earned their first WAC Indoor Track and Field Championship. Prior to college coaching Zent served at the Deer Valley High School head cross country coach and assistant track coach for eight years. He also served as a teacher as well. During his time with Skyhawks, he had 13 AIA Division II Boys and Girls Cross Country team State qualifiers, as well a AIA Division II Girls Track and Field Team Championship.
 
Prior to coaching, Zent served as a teacher and a software account representative for multiple years. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and earned his master's degree in secondary education from Northern Arizona University in 2010.