Gaston College sets history in women's cross country in Rhinos' first NJCAA national competition and get first-ever national qualifier

Gaston College set athletic history on Saturday at the Region 10 cross country championships at the Milliken Arboretum course in Spartanburg, S.C.

Not only did the Rhinos make their first national postseason appearance since the school restarted athletics last year but sophomore runner Victoria Perez took third place in Region 10 and Gaston College's 10 runners combined for a second-place team score.

"We had good practices coming into this and our ladies ran really strong," first-year Rhinos coach Kody Kubbs said. "I'm really happy for this group."

Perez, a former Gastonia Highland Tech standout, finished as Gaston College's individual medalist for the ninth time in the school's nine meets and her third-place finish makes her an All-Region selection and means she will qualify for the 2022 NJCAA national championships on Nov. 12 at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.

Perez will become the first national individual qualifier in Gaston College history.

"I'm so excited because I got to compete with this team and we had a good effort all around," said Perez, who completed the 5K course in 22 minutes and 27.78 seconds.

Alheli Ramos-Garcia of Patrick & Henry Community College won the event with a 21:14.43 clocking with Central Carolina Community College's Lillian Bennett finishing second with a time of 21:39.30.

Spartanburg Methodist took the team title as four of its runners finished in the overall top 10. The Pioneers' accumulated a team score of 24 out of qualifying team scorers to beat the Rhinos by seven points.

Scoring points for Gaston College were Stefani Vergara-Delgado (25:06.27 for 9th overall and 5th-place team score), Rein Norton-Small (25:30.20 for 11th, 7th), Andrea Ortiz (27:45.95 for 15th, 8th), Audrey Krupa (28:31.02 for 18th, 10th).

Also competing in Saturday's meet for the Rhinos were Leah Treat, Keren Robleda, Daisy Aviles, Labre Elliott and Emma Laney.

"We're going to keep training for a couple of weeks and take Victoria to the nationals," Kubbs said. "We'll have a couple of runners train with her the next couple of weeks so they can get the feel of what it's like and next year our goal will be to go to the nationals as a team."