Gaston College sophomores Lexi Birtwistle (left) and Maddie Frank are the two returning cross country runners from the Rhinos' 2024 Region 10 championship team.

Posted: Sep 08, 2025

Gaston College cross country enters 2025 as defending Region 10 champion

Gaston College is the defending Region 10 champion as it prepares to begin its 2026 cross country this season this Friday at the Pfeiffer University Cross Country Invitational.

"I think we welcome that," Fourth-year Rhinos cross country coach Kody Kubbs said of his team's upcoming title defense. "We want to set the standard and these young ladies know that standard has been set."

Currently with a roster of six runners, Kubbs has two key returnees from the title team in 2024 South Point High graduates from nearby Belmont - Lexi Birtwistle and Maddie Frank.

Both runners improved their times throughout last season and finished fourth-place (Birtwistle) and fifth-place (Frank) is last year's Region 10 championship meet in Shelby to earn all-league honors.

"We are looking forward to seeing what we can do this season," Frank said. "We want to improve on our times from last year."

Frank said she and Birtwistle began offseason training in January "two to three times a week" to get prepared for this season as Region 10 medalist Keirieonna Wilson is now running at NCAA Division II Carson-Newman. Another 2024 teammate, Abbygale King, is running cross country and also playing soccer at NCCAA Spurgeon College.

"It was nice to have somebody ahead of you like her (Wilson) to push you," Birtwistle said. "We're trying to be that this year for the younger runners."

Local freshmen Sasha Harrelson and Carson Summey (East Gaston), Heidi Rodriguez Hernandez (Highland Tech) and Maylin Escobar (Hunter Huss) currently round out the roster.

"My big thing is making our top runners be where we want them to be," Kubb said. "And we're pushing ourselves in the schedule because we're facing top teams and four-year schools."

Here's the Gaston College 2025 cross country schedule:

Sept. 12 Pfeiffer University XC Invitational

Sept. 20 Yeti Invitational at Shelby

Oct. 10 Livingstone XC Invitational at Salisbury

Oct. 18 USC Upstate Invitational at Spartanburg, S.C.

Oct. 25 Region 10 Championships at Cleveland CC course (Shelby)

Nov. 8 NJCAA National Championships (Fort Dodge, Iowa)

Nov. 11 NJCAA Half Marathon National Championships (Fort Dodge, Iowa)