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LEBANON, Pa.- In the midst of an excellent fall season, the West Chester University men's golf team is preparing for the 2025 edition of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships, which are set to be held once again at Iron Valley Golf Club in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The 54-hole Tournament, which will call Iron Valley home for the fourth year in a row, is slated to begin on Friday morning and will conclude after the third round on Sunday.
West Chester is in the midst of an excellent fall season, which has seen the team finish in the top five in each of its first five Tournaments to open the year, including a victory at the WCU Battlefield Classic in Gettysburg to open the season.
"We've had a strong fall season leading into the PSAC Championship, so the team should have confidence heading into this weekend," started head coach
Chris Merce. "We've been in contention and towards the top of the leaderboard in each tournament so far this fall, so we're comfortable playing in that position, and hopefully we can put ourselves there again heading into Sunday."
In Gettysburg, West Chester's A lineup finished first with a 36-hole score of 577 (290, 287), while the "B" squad took fourth with a 36-hole score of 623 (311, 312).
Evan Jozwiak (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson) led West Chester at this Tournament as he finished in a tie for second at one-under (70, 73; 143) as the entire Golden Ram lineup finished in the top-10.
Paul-Arthur Roth (Virginia Beach, Va./Frank W. Cox) finished in a tie for fifth at +2 (74, 72; 146) followed by
Will Hilton (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) +3 (70, 77; 147) and
Patrick Carl (Mount Airy, Md./South Carroll) +3 (76, 71; 147) in a tie for seventh with
Yamato Kimura (Kuwana Mie, Japan/Monteverde Academy) rounding out the contingent in a tie for 10
th at +7 (80, 71; 151).
Alex Marchetti (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) led the second West Chester team with a 12
th-place finish at +8 (77, 75; 152).
Later in September, West Chester finished third at the King University Invitational, led by an individual Tournament title by Roth at -7 (68, 65; 133), which helped West Chester record a 36-hole score of 554 (278, 276).
West Chester played in one 54-hole Tournament so far this year, the Sunnehanna Collegiate, at the end of September, and finished in a tie for third with a 54-hole score of 862 (278, 291, 293), led by a seventh-place finish from Carl at +2 (68, 70, 74; 212) for the Championship.
Led by a 75 and a third-place finish from
Victor Mominey (Spring City, Pa./Owen J. Roberts), West Chester started October with a fifth-place finish and a team score of 316 at the single-round Alvernia Fall Invitational.
Last weekend, West Chester shot back-to-back 291's and held a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Davenport Panther Invitational before finishing third with a two-day score of 582. Kimura was the top finisher for WCU in Michigan on Sunday as he carded a two-under 69 to climb from 16
th to fifth on the individual leaderboard with a 36-hole score of one-over (74, 69; 143).
"We've had a very deep team this fall, and a large part of that has been the contributions of the five new players to the roster," explained Merce. "We've had a different low scorer in each of our first four events this fall, and we've had six different players shoot tournament rounds under par this fall. Any of the players in our lineup can lead our team any given round, and that's been a large part of our success so far this season."
In 2024, West Chester finished seventh at the PSAC Championships with a 54-hole score of 935 (308, 315, 312), led by a 27
th-place finish from
Connor Strine with a three-day total of 234 (73, 80, 81). Jozwiak is the top returning finisher from this group for West Chester, finishing 33
rd with a score of 239 (77, 79, 83).
The Golden Ram lineup is expected to consist of Jozwiak, Kimura, Roth, Hilton, and Carl, with
Nathan Radwanski (Mohnton, Pa./Governor Mifflin) waiting in the wings as a sub if needed.
"Of the six players travelling this weekend, only Evan (Jozwiak) has prior experience playing Iron Valley in a PSAC Championship, but I don't think that will be a disadvantage for us this weekend," noted Merce when asked about the new look to his lineup thus far in 2025. "With so many new players in the lineup this fall, we really haven't had much prior experience on any of our tournament courses this fall. However, I think we do an excellent job with our practice rounds and being able to map out the course with lines off the tee and where the good misses are around the greens."
The Golden Rams head into the weekend looking for their sixth PSAC Title in addition to their titles from 1968, 1969, 2006, 2014, and 2018. This weekend, the team Champion at the PSAC Championships will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships next May.
"We know that with this weekend being a conference championship, there's a little more on the line, but we embrace that and just need to go out and play our game the way we have the last month," said Merce when asked about his message to the Golden Rams before the Tournament begins on Friday. "With three days of golf, we need to minimize big mistakes and be able to move on quickly if we do make a mistake. This year, we've done a pretty good job of bouncing back when we have a slow start to a round or make a mistake, so that attitude and resilience throughout the lineup are really important for the success of the team. It's rare in a three-day tournament that you have your A game each day, so being prepared to grind your way through the round when you don't have your best stuff is crucial to team success in college golf."
Jozwiak will be the first Golden Ram off the tee in the opening round on Friday morning at 11:40 and will be followed by his teammates at 10-minute intervals after that. Hilton will be the fifth and final Golden Ram to start his first round in the last group of the day at 12:20 p.m.
