Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Gaston College's Maddie Frank (left) and Lexi Birtwistle show off their top finisher certificates from Friday's Livingstone Cross Country Invitational in Salisbury.
Gaston College's Maddie Frank (left) and Lexi Birtwistle show off their top finisher certificates from Friday's Livingstone Cross Country Invitational in Salisbury.
Posted: Oct 10, 2025

Birtwistle sets school history for Gaston College cross country on day when Frank also finishes in top 10

Gaston College sophomore Lexi Birtwistle set school history on Friday morning at the Livingstone College Cross Country Invitational by becoming the Rhinos' first two-time individual medalist.

Birtwistle, a two-year standout from Belmont's South Point High School, completed the 5,000-meter course at Salisbury Community Park in first place with a time of 20 minutes, 17.75 seconds. She finished 3.78 seconds ahead Ava Millner of event team champion - and NCAA Division II school Winston-Salem State.

"Lexi absolutely crushed it," Gaston College cross country coach Kody Kubbs said of Birtwistle's personal-best time. "She led the race from start to finish.
"She just ran a phenomenal race. We knew that the couple of ladies behind her had a strong closing kick. So Lexi did what she had to do during the middle of the race to make sure that she won."

Fellow sophomore and former South Point High standout Maddie Frank was the Rhinos' only other competitor on Friday and she finished with a season-best time of 22:15.09 for a sixth place overall finish.

"Maddie ran a really smart race," Kubbs said. "The field went out really quick and she let them go and moved all the way up to sixth place."

Birtwistle had joined 2023 and 2024 standout Keirieonna Wilson as the only other individual medalist in school history in the Rhinos' last meet when she won the Sept. 20 Yeti Invitational at the Cleveland Community Course in Shelby.

Next Saturday at the USC Upstate Invite at Milliken Research Arboretum in Spartanburg, S.C., Kubbs hopes Gaston College can field five runners for the Rhinos' first team score of the season when it has its final tuneup in preparation of its Region 10 championship defense on Oct. 25 at the Cleveland Community College course.

"Hopefully, we're going to field a whole team in Spartanburg," Kubbs said. "Upstate has a tremendous field with some really big (NCAA Division I) schools there that will put down some good times.
"But our ladies love that course. So we're looking forward to the challenge."