WEST CHESTER, Pa.- After capturing its sixth PSAC Tournament title and its first since 2018 at Iron Valley last October, the West Chester University men's golf team returns to the PSAC Men's Golf Championships at Iron Valley this week, looking to duplicate its successes from a year ago. The 54-hole Tournament, which is scheduled to have one round per day over the course of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Iron Valley, is set to begin at 10 a.m. on Friday.
The PSAC has launched a Championship Central page, which is available
here. Live results will be available
here.
Course Details: Iron Valley Golf Club (Lebanon, Pa.)
Par-Yardage: 72-6,750
When West Chester captured the PSAC Tournament title in 2025, the Golden Rams did so with what was by all accounts a young lineup with three freshmen and a pair of juniors in the lineup, and those three rookies all recorded top-10 finishes, led by
Paul-Arthur Roth (Virginia Beach, Va./Frank W. Cox), who finished in a tie for fifth at +5 (73, 71, 77; 221). This performance helped Roth earn PSAC Men's Golf Freshman of the Year honors, becoming the first Rookie of the Year for West Chester since Chris Warner in 2017-18.
"We had a great season last year with winning a conference championship and finishing second in the region heading into regionals," head coach
Chris Merce said when asked about building on last year's success. "We didn't play our best at Regionals in May, so I think that was a real motivator for our returning guys heading into the summer. It's tough to win tournaments at this level because there are so many good teams capable of playing really good golf every week, so returning the majority of our core from such a successful team was a real benefit to continuing to build the culture that we want in our program."
The lineup looks fairly similar for West Chester at the 2026 Championships as the Golden Rams turn to
William Hilton (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland), Patrick Carl (Mount Airy, Md./South Carroll), Nathan Radwanski (Mohnton, Pa./Governor Mifflin), Evan Jozwiak (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson), and Yamato Kimura (Kuwana Mie, Japan/Monteverde Academy), with
Vaughn Brodowski (Wilmington, N.C./Coastal Christian) waiting in the wings as a sub if needed. Hilton and Carl finished in ties for seventh and 10
th at the 2025 Championships with scores of +6 (75,76, 71; 222) and +8 (72, 78, 74; 224), while Jozwiak and Kimura were 12
th and 22
nd at +9 (75, 74, 76; 225) and +17 (79, 78, 76; 233), respectively.
"We are fortunate to return our entire travel lineup and add two talented players to the team this fall. Going back to a course that we know well and have obviously had success at like Iron Valley is a great confidence boost as well," continued Merce.
Ranked fourth regionally in the final weeks of the fall season, West Chester has a 292.66 adjusted scoring average in four Tournaments, including wins at the UC Invitational (865- 291, 283, 291) and WCU Battlefield Classic (296 – "A"// 299 – "B") to open the season. Since then, West Chester has finished fifth at the Sunnehanna Collegiate with a 54-hole score of 857 (283, 288, 286) and fourth at the Kyle Ryman Memorial on October 6 with a 54-hole score of 896 (298, 300, 298).
Jozwiak and Hilton are tied for the team lead in scoring average at 72.75 entering the PSAC Championships, with top finishes of fourth at the Sunnehanna Collegiate and second at the UC Invitational, respectively. Carl has a 73.75 adjusted scoring average, while Radwanski and Kimura post 74.25 adjusted scoring averages, with the top finish among this group being a playoff win for Radwanski at the WCU Battlefield Classic over Carl. Brodowski has a 74.31 adjusted scoring average heading into the Championships.
"We've had a good fall season to this point with two wins and two strong finishes. I thought we missed some opportunities in the last few events with too many bogeys and giving back too many shots, so that is something we need to focus on cleaning up heading into the Championship. The PSAC is such a strong conference, so we are going to have to play well all weekend to be in the mix again come Sunday afternoon," noted Merce.
When asked about a message to his group, which experienced success at the Championships last fall, Merce said, "With a big returning group, we have a pretty good idea of how we want to play the course, so being able to maintain our composure each day on a challenging course is going to be the key for us. Looking at the forecast, it looks like some rain on Friday and cold temperatures for the weekend, so conditions will be challenging. We need to make sure we minimize our major mistakes and big numbers and bounce back quickly mentally whenever we do make mistakes."
First-round action is set to begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, with
Evan Jozwiak in the first group off the tee. Jozwiak will be joined by Eli Ropietski of Pitt-Johnstown and Mattia Parrini of Gannon in the opening group of the Championship. Kimura will be the final Golden Ram off the first tee at 10:40 am alongside Griffin Hansberry of Pitt-Johnstown and Carson Moniz of Gannon. Full pairings are available
here.
