Gaston College, Birtwistle return to cross country action after two solid efforts

Through two meets of the 2025 cross country season, Gaston College has shown that it has star power in sophomores Lexi Birtwistle and Maddie Frank and the ability to defend the Region 10 championship it won last fall.

With two regular season meets and the Region 10 championship meet left on the schedule, coach Kody Kubbs is prepping his team for a strong closing kick.

"It's crazy how quick it goes," Kubbs said. "But I like where we're at and these young ladies have been working hard.
"They've put in a lot of work and we're looking to be peaking when we get to the Region 10 tournament."

On Friday, the Rhinos compete in the Livingstone Cross Country Invitational in Salisbury at 10 a.m., then compete in the Upstate Invite in Spartanburg, S.C., at 9 a.m., on Oct. 18 before the Oct. 25 Region 10 championships will be at the nearby Cleveland Community College course in Shelby.

So far, Birtwistle and Frank have had strong showings - Birtwistle finished 11th in the Sept. 12 Pfeiffer Invitational that included NCAA Division I, II and III teams and was the individual medalist in the Sept. 20 Yeti Invitational and Frank finished 19th at Pfeiffer and fourth in the Yeti Invitational; Birtwistle and Frank were teammates at South Point High in Belmont before coming to Gaston College.

"I'm excited to see where we go," said Birtwistle, who ran at said. "We've been doing pretty good. We (Frank and I) ran a lot in the offseason and hoped we'd be prepared for what was to come."

Birtwistle has set running a 20-minute race as her season-long goal. She's had times of 20:42.9 and 20:36.4 and her career-best was 20:28.9 in last year's Upstate Invite.

Her individual win in the Yeti Invitational was only the second in Gaston College's five-year history and joined 2024 Region 10 champion Keirieonna Wilson in taking medalist honors.

"It's awesome what she's accomplished so far," Kubbs said of Birtwistle. "She's really set the tone and continued to raise the bar like Keirieonna did last year. It's really picking the whole team up."

Kubbs' team isn't expected to have the five runners needed to compete for a team score.

"We're going to try to get some runners back and working to be at our peak in the Region 10 championships," Kubbs said.