Gaston College's Victoria Perez makes school history in NJCAA cross country championships

On a course soaked in recent days by Hurricane Nicole, Gaston College's Victoria Perez made school history on Saturday in the National Junior College Athletic Association cross country championships.

Perez, a former Gastonia Highland Tech High standout, finished 134th out of 183 women's Division I runners with a time of 23 minutes, 20.8 seconds at the Apalachee Regional Park course in Tallahassee, Fla.

Perez, who finished third in the Region 10 championships on Oct. 29, was the highest-finisher among Region 10 runners who competed in the NJCAA championships.

"Although the coarse had dried up nicely from Hurricane Nicole, the hot and humid conditions resulted in slower than anticipated results from all runners," Gaston College cross country coach Kody Kubbs said. "Vic ran a strong race and represented Gaston Collage amazingly."

El Paso Community College's Faith Nyathi won her second straight Division I national title with a time of 17:47.8 that was a full 18 seconds ahead of the second-place runner on the 5,000-meter course.

Southern Idaho had its five scorers finish among the top 21 scorers to claim the team title. Region 10 champion Spartanburg Methodist finished 25th in the team standings.

Perez, who is the first individual national tournament competitor in Gaston College history, was joined at the NJCAA nationals by teammates Rein Norton-Small, Stefani Vergara-Delgado and Andrea Ortiz.

Kubbs and his runners attended a pre race banquet at Florida State University's Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium.

"The athletes banquet at the FSU football stadium was an awesome experience for all of our athletes and just the overall atmosphere of the national championships was like no other experience we've had," said Kubbs, who coached Gaston College's second women's cross country team in history this fall. "It's definitely special for these ladies to get to experience all that the nationals are."