Gaston College runners finish in top 105 of NJCAA national half marathon championships on chilly, windy day

Four days after Gaston College women's cross country runners Lexi Birtwistle and Maddie Frank had to run through snow on a muddy surface in the National Junior College Athletic Association cross country championships, they survived gusty, chilly conditions while running on a pavement and asphalt track in the 2025 NJCAA half marathon championship.

With temperatures in the 20s and 30s and winds gusting up to 30 mph in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Birtwistle finished 65th and Frank 105th out of 138 runners at the Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

The weather was so challenging that seven runners in the field did not finish the race.

"I could not be more proud of how they ran," Gaston College cross country coach Kody Kubbs said of Birtwistle and Frank. "They put in a ton of hot summer miles and early morning training runs to get to this point so it's special to see all of the hard work pay off on the national stage.
"Many runners that started the race succumbed to the brutal wind gusts on the back half of the course but Lexi and Maddie just kept grinding. They earned this finish."

Both sophomores from Belmont's South Point High School, Birtistle and Frank had finished 104th and 150th, respectively, out of 178 runners in Saturday's cross country championships.

On Tuesday, Birtwistle ran the 13.1-mile course in a personal-best time of 1 hour, 35 minutes, 39.9 seconds. Frank finished in 1:46:57.8.

It was the second straight year Gaston College has sent runner to the NJCAA half marathon.

"The temperatures at the start were upper 20s and lower 30s but it was the wind that played a huge factor for everyone today," Kubbs said. "We had wind gusts on the plains up to 30 mph which made miles five through 12 very challenging for all of the runners.
"That part of the course was very exposed so it took a lot of discipline and perseverance for our ladies to continue to dig deep."