WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester University women'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.
Katja Larsen (Spring City, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) and
Genevieve McDonald (Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown) both scored points for West Chester in the 60-meter dash, finishing fourth and eighth in 7.85 and 7.99 seconds, respectively, before Larsen added another podium finish in the 200 with an eighth-place finish in 26.26 seconds.
Abigail Hanneman (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J./Point Pleasant Boro) led West Chester in the 400 with a seventh-place finish in 1:00.17 before
Cassie Nugin (Camp Hill, Pa./Cedar Cliff) made history as the Golden Rams first 800-meter Champion in 2:16.81.
Jessalyn Welsh (Enola, Pa./East Pennsboro) led the Golden Ram distance crew at the Championships with a fourth-place finish in the 5K in 18:00.58, while
Kristina Tapia (Ridley Park, Pa./Ridley) was sixth in 18:07.31.
West Chester also scored in both the DMR and 4x400 relays in 12:24.97 and 4:04.80 to finish seventh and eighth, respectively.
In field events,
Kaylie Groff (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra) and
Hannah LaFave (Spring Brook Township, Pa./North Pocono) earned podium finishes in a tie for seventh with marks of 11 feet 5 ¾ inches (3.50 meters).
Nikolien Bezuidenhout (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley) added two points of her own in the triple jump with a seventh-place finish and a mark of 36-2 ¾ (11.04m).
"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.
