WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester University men's track and field team is finishing its preparations for the beginning of the 2026 Outdoor season on Friday afternoon. The majority of the Golden Rams squad will open their campaign in West Chester at the Purple and Gold Opener, while another contingent heads for North Carolina for the 49ers Classic on Friday and Saturday.
This weekend's meet, which will span two days in John A. Farrell Stadium, is the first of three home meets for West Chester this spring as the Golden Rams will host the Bill Butler Invitational on April 10-11 before concluding the regular season slate with a Last Chance qualifier on Friday, May 8.
"We are really excited heading into this weekend," opened Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Colin Leak. "We had a strong indoor performance and are really building some great momentum and excitement heading into the outdoor season."
In between its home meets, West Chester will compete at the Widener Danny Currany Invitational on March 27-28, and the NC State Raleigh Relays before April takes West Chester to William & Mary for the Colonial Relays and Collegeville for the Ursinus Track and Field Festival. During the Bill Butler weekend, West Chester will also have a small contingent at Bucknell for the Bison Outdoor Classic before returning to Widener on April 17-18 for the Paul Donahue Invitational. The Golden Rams will make their annual trip to the Penn Relays April 23-25, while sending another group to Shippensburg for the Paul Kaiser Classic on April 24-25 before returning to SHIP for the PSAC Outdoor Championships beginning on April 30.
"We stayed and trained over spring break and had a great intersquad meet last Friday to get the competitive juices flowing and really build some excitement," noted Leak. "We are looking forward to opening up this weekend and getting this outdoor season underway. The seven weeks in front of us are going to fly by, so we know it's going to be important to have a strong start to the year to not only springboard off of our indoor season but to get ourselves into strong heats, flights, and meets right away this spring."
West Chester heads into the Outdoor season with strong momentum from an excellent showing at the PSAC Indoor Championships in early March.
Josh Miller (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) and
Matt Remishofski (Wall, N.J./Wall) helped lead West Chester at the Indoor Championships as Miller finished second in both the 3 and 5K in 8:31.21 and 15:12.63, while Remishofski led West Chester in the mile with a fifth-place finish in 4:18.20. This duo was also part of the men's DMR squad, which took third in 10:10.44 and broke a 54-year old school record in the process.
Xavier Jones (Philadelphia, Pa./Springside Chestnut Hill) and
Billy Zane (Springfield, Pa./Springfield Delco) were the other two members of that historic group.
West Chester also placed three student athletes on the 400 podium, led by
David Burnshaw (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley) in fourth in 49.54 seconds, followed by
Bishop Lane (Wilmington, Del./Salesianum) and
Terry Dweh (Darby, Pa./Pennwood) in sixth and seventh in 51.22 and 51.24 seconds.
Evan McCracken (Johnstown, Pa./Richland) also scored for West Chester in the 60-meter finals with a sixth-place finish in 6.93 seconds.
The Golden Rams wrapped up their time on the track with a fourth-place finish in the 4x400 relay in 3:22.49.
In field events,
Brodyn Wolfert (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) hit a PR of his own in the weight throw and finished eighth with a mark of 53 feet 3 three inches (16.23 meters), while
Jake Jones (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine Richland) did the same in the pole vault to finish seventh with a mark of 14-10 ¼ (4.53m).
The Golden Rams also picked up important points in the heptathlon as
Chase Hildreband (Chalfont, Pa./C.B. South) led the squad with a sixth-place finish with 4,438 points for the weekend.
"The culture we are building really showed at the PSAC Indoor Championships," said Leak. "We had great energy all weekend, and people really took notice. In this sport, you have to emphasize things like team energy to make sure it doesn't become too much of an individual sport. If we can keep getting our student-athletes to come closer together and recognize that they are representing something bigger than themselves, we will keep getting better and better, and I'm excited to see that hopefully continue this weekend."
The Purple and Gold Invitational will get underway on Friday afternoon, beginning with the Steeplechase, 5K, and 10K, as well as the Hammer Throw, with the remainder of the events on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.
