Reviewing Gaston College's 2022-23 cross country season
The Gaston College women's cross country team launched the second era in the school's sports history by being the first team to compete in the fall of 2021, bridging a 50-year gap in athletic competition.
That history-making odyssey continued during the 2022 season as the Rhinos reached new milestones under a new coach.
With South Point High teacher and coach Kody Kubbs at the helm after adding depth to the roster, Gaston College recorded the first team score in school history in its season-opening meet at the Fleet Feet Invitational at Catawba College on Sept. 7, 2022.
The six-person National Junior College Athletic Association team competed against NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II competition with two holdovers from the Rhinos' inaugural 2021 team, Victoria Perez and Rein Norton-Small, finishing 85th and 105th, respectively.
First-year runners Stefani Vergara-Delgado (109th), Audrey Krupa (118th), Andrea Ortiz (119th) and Leah Treat (121st) rounded out Gaston College's individual finishers. It was a significant achievement as a cross country has to have five runners finish the race in order to post a team score.
The Rhinos repeated the feat of notching a team score in their second meet on Sept. 17 in the Converse Kickoff at Milliken Research Park in Spartanburg, S.C. Perez remained a perfect six-for-six in school history as Rhinos' individual medalist with a 79th-place finish after running the course in 28 minutes, 21.8 seconds.
The third team score came on Sept. 24 in the Yeti Invitational at Cleveland Community College in Shelby. Perez earned team medalist honors for the seventh time in seven meets as she finished 15th overall after navigating the course in 23 minutes, 24.0 seconds.
In yet another milestone on Oct. 8 in a 6k event at the Columbia College Cross-Country course in Columbia, S.C., each of Gaston College's seven runners completed the race with a team score that ranked 13th out of 17 competing schools. Perez was again the medalist for the Rhinos with a time of 26:12.1, good enough for 40th overall. Rounding out Gaston College's team scorers were Stefani Vergara-Delgado (64th-place score, 29:59.0), Andrea Ortiz (76th, 33:55.9), Emma Laney (80th, 37:42.2) and Audrey Krupa (81st, 38:15.7).
The experience and confidence gained in the first two months of the season seasoned the Rhinos for their first national postseason appearance in history – the Region 10 cross country championships Oct. 29 at the Milliken Arboretum course in Spartanburg.
On a misty, rainy day, the Rhinos reached new heights as Perez took third place and Gaston College's 10 runners combined for a second-place team score.
In finishing as Gaston College's individual medalist for the ninth time in the school's nine meets and notching third place, Perez earned All-Region 10 honors and qualified for the 2022 NJCAA national championships Nov. 12 at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.
Also scoring points for Gaston College in the Region 10 event 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) and Audrey Krupa (28:31.02 for 18th, 10th).
After training for two weeks with a few teammates at her side for support, Perez received a proper send-off on Nov. 10 as staff and well-wishers gathered at the watch tower on the Dallas campus.
Gaston College athletic director Shohn Doty wished Perez good luck with a short speech before she set off for the trip in a packed van with Kubbs and teammates Rein Norton-Small, Stefani Vergara-Delgado and Andrea Ortiz.
Even though the Tallahassee course was soaked by Hurricane Nicole in the days leading up to the race, Perez went the distance to make more school history; The former Highland Tech standout finished 134th out of 183 women's Division I runners with a time of 23 minutes, 20.8 seconds. Perez was the highest finisher among Region 10 runners who competed in the NJCAA championships.
In addition to Perez's performance, a highlight of the trip was the 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," Kubbs said afterwards. "It's definitely special for these ladies to get to experience all that the nationals are."