Full GEC Release
WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester University women's gymnastics program was picked to finish third in the 2025 Gymnastics East Conference (GEC) preseason coaches poll released on Wednesday afternoon.
West Chester has finished inside the top three at two of the last three GEC Championships and received 39 points in the poll this winter, which landed them third in a vote of the conference head coaches.
The University of Pennsylvania was the clearcut preseason favorite with 62 points and six first-place votes, while Yale was second with 56 points and two first-place votes of its own. Following West Chester was Brown and Cornell in fourth and fifth with 38 and 36 points, followed by Bridgeport (24), William & Mary (23), and Southern Connecticut State (10).
West Chester returns four of its five All-GEC performers from a year ago, led by USAG Bars National Champion
Jordan Coleman (Bowie, Md.) and 2024 GEC Specialist of the Year
Caroline Cascadden (Ashburn, Va.). Cascadden was a First Team selection a year ago on both the beam and floor exercise, while Coleman earned a First Team nod on the bars.
Lily McFarland (Baltimore, Md.) was also a First Team honoree on the beam, while
Sarah Eskew (Pittsburgh, Pa.) was named to the Second Team on both the vault and uneven bars.
Eskew led West Chester at the 2024 GEC Championships at Yale last March, tying for third on the uneven bars with a personal-best score of 9.85 before finishing fifth in the all-around with another personal-best score of 39.1.
West Chester will open its 2025 campaign on Saturday, January 11, in the Garden State at Rutgers as the Scarlet Knights will also welcome Towson and GEC Preseason favorite Penn to Jersey Mike's Arena for a Saturday afternoon clash. Following this, West Chester will hop on a plane and fly to Texas for a return trip to Texas Woman's University to face TWU and perennial-power Southeast Missouri State on Friday the 17
th at 7 p.m. From Denton, West Chester, make the trip to Louisiana to visit Centenary, where they will face off against SEMO on Monday night for the second time in three days.
West Chester will open its home slate on Saturday, February 1, in the Sturzebecker Health Science Center against SUNY-Cortland and SUNY-Brockport beginning at 1 p.m. This will be the first of a two-meet homestand for the Golden Rams as West Chester will remain home on February 8 to host Ursinus beginning at 1 p.m.
