Gaston College opens 2025 cross country with impressive individual efforts

Gaston College opened its 2025 cross country season last Friday with a pair of top 20 individual finishers in the Pfeiffer University Cross Country Invitational.

Sophomores Lexi Birtwistle and Maddie Frank, both former South Point High School products from Belmont, were the only runners for coach Kody Kubbs' team in the opening meet.

Birtwistle completed the Pfeiffer course in 20 minutes, 42.9 seconds for an 11th-place individual meet against NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA four-year competition.

Frank finished 19th with a 22:18.1 clocking.

"Lexi and Maddie trained really hard all offseason and it showed," Kubbs said. "They ran like veteran, sophomore runners and I'm proud of how they did.
"We didn't want to rush the other ladies just yet. We're so early in the practice process we didn't want to push them."

On Saturday, the Rhinos will get a chance to see how they compare to National Junior College Athletic Association competition in the Yeti Invitational at the Cleveland Community Course in Shelby that hosts the Region 10 championship meet for the third straight season in late October.

"We're looking at this week as a good chance to get in a full team meet as well as prepare for what's ahead a month and a half from now," said Kubbs, whose team won the Region 10 title in 2024. "It's a great opportunity to run that course."