NEW HAVEN, CONN – Coming off perhaps the most successful regular-season in recent years, West Chester University's women's gymnastics squad, and head coach Barb Cordova, head to the 2024 Gymnastics East Conference (GEC) Championships which take place Saturday evening inside the John J. Lee Amphitheater on the campus of Yale University.
 
Tickets to the second annual GEC Championships can be found at this LINK. The Championship meet will be web streamed. Each of the two sessions has its own unique link. West Chester University will be competing in Session 2. That video link is HERE.
 
Session 1 kicks off on Saturday at noon with Cornell, William & Mary, Southern Connecticut and Bridgeport taking center stage. Session 2 will follow at 6 p.m. with Brown, Yale, UPenn and West Chester.
 
In addition to the team title, postseason all-conference honors will be awarded with first-team distinction going to 1st-3rd places and second-team honors awarded to 4th-6th places.
 
Additionally, at the conclusion of the meet the league will honor its Athlete of the Year, Performance of the Year, Woman of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Specialist of the Year, Head Coach of the Year and Assistant Coach of the Year.
 
West Chester placed third at last year's championships. The Golden Rams have finished third in each of the first two GEC Championships in 2022 and 2023. Seeded fourth in the championship meet behind Ivy League schools, Pennsylvania, Yale and Brown, West Chester carries its highest national qualifying score (NQS) in school history into Saturday's meet. The 193.95 is the second best NQS in the country among Division II schools – only Texas Woman's University is higher. Four individual team records fell this winter while another three team records were smashed.
 
Five different gymnasts from West Chester were named All-Gymnastics East Conference (GEC) while two were all-league in a pair of events rounding out the total number of all-conference certificates at seven. Four first-team certificates were handed out while another three second-team plaudits were distributed.
 
Sarah Eskew (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Caroline Cascadden (Ashburn, Va.) took home a pair of honors each. Cascadden was first team on both the balance beam and the floor exercise while Eskew was second-team All-GEC nod on the vault and uneven bars.
 
First-team picks included: Jordan Coleman (Bowie, Md.) on the uneven bars, who is making her second appearance on the first team and third overall, and Lily McFarland (Baltimore, Md.) who is also making a second appearance on the first team and third overall.
 
Kiley Fred (Highland Mill, N.Y.) rounded out the West Chester contingent on the all-league team. She was second team on the floor. Both Cascadden and Fred are making their first appearance on an All-GEC team with their selection this year.