Gaston College continues showing improvement in Saturday’s Yetis Invitational

Gaston College's women's cross country team continued to show progress in Saturday's Yetis Invitational at Cleveland Community College in Shelby.

The Rhinos finished fifth place in the team standings while freshman Keirieonna Wilson notched a second straight top 10 individual finish.

"We're real happy with how the ladies ran," Gaston College coach Kody Kubbs said. "Wilson continues to impress."

The freshman from Statesville who attended South Iredell High School, Wilson improved upon her personal best for a second straight week.

Her high school best was 21:38, then she finished sixth at the Sept. 16 Pfeiffer Invitational with a time of 21:31.1. She showed even more improvement on Saturday with a 21:24.5 clocking to finish eighth overall.

All five scorers set seasonal-bests; The others were set by freshman Abigail Presley (26:10.9 for 27th place), sophomore Stefani Vergara-Delgado (27:00.4 for 36th place), freshman Abbygale King (29:16.7 for 40th place) and freshman Abigale Harris (30:16.8 for 41st place).

Other Gaston College runners were Alayna Cook (30:17.1 for 42nd place) and Leah Treat (33:29.1 for 45th place).

Four-year Truett McConnell University finished first in the team standings with 28 points. Region 10 rival Spartanburg Methodist (68), four-year Belmont Abbey (72), four-year Warren Wilson (87) and the Rhinos (110) rounded out the team standings.

Julianne Dodson of Walters State Community College was the individual medalist with a time of 19:49.0.

The meet gave Gaston College some prep time for the upcoming Oct. 28 Region 10 championships that will be held on the same course.

"The girls were really happy with running the course and were happy we were checking out the course ahead of our region championship meet," Kubbs said.

Next week, Gaston College returns to action in the Akiah McMillan Invitational 6K at Columbia, S.C., College at 9 a.m. on Sept. 30.