Gaston College cross country faces the stiffest competition of its 3-year history at USC Upstate Invitational

Gaston College's women's cross country faces the most challenging competition in its three-year history on Saturday when it competed in the USC Upstate Invitational at the Milliken Research Arboretum course in Spartanburg, S.C.

The country's 18th-ranked college team (Furman) led a 32-team field of 25 NCAA Division I teams, two NCAA Division II teams, two NCAA Division III teams, a U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association team and National Junior College Athletic Association Region 10 teams Gaston College and Spartanburg Methodist.

Furman won the team title on Saturday and Coastal Carolina's Molly Jones was the individual medalist with a time of 16:53.5 on the 5K course.

"It was about the experience today and being on that course with all of those teams," Gaston College women's cross country coach Kody Kubbs said. "It's pretty phenomenal to get to go against the 18th-ranked team in the country.
"It's just crazy that we're there running against all of those big, highly-successful schools. It was a great experience for our team today."

Sophomore Stefani Vergara-Delgado led Gaston College with a 265th overall finish for a 197 score with a time of 26:32.5. It was her first team medalist honors in her two-year Rhinos' career.

Other Gaston College scorers were freshmen Abbygale King (268th, 200 score, 27:44.2), Abigale Harris (270th, 202 score, 28:31.6) and Alayna Cook (274th, 206 score, 30:47.9) and sophomore Leah Treat (279th, 211 score, 34:31.7).

The Rhinos competed on Saturday without the two freshman runners that have been their two two runners in each of their previous three meets this season.

Freshmen Keirieonna Wilson and Abigail Presley, who have had the team's top individual times in the first three meets of the year, were out of action as were sophomore Emma Laney and freshman Maytalene Lopez.

Saturday's meet was Gaston College's final tuneup before the 2023 Region 10 championship meet on Oct. 28 at the Cleveland Community College course in Shelby.

The Rhinos finished as Region 10 runner-up to Spartanburg Methodist in last year's meet that was held at the Milliken Research Arboretum course Gaston College ran on Saturday.

"I'm definitely happy with how the training has been going this season," Kubbs said. "Right now, we've been hit by the injury bug so we have a two-week period to get back to good health.
"Four of our runners are down with injury so we've got to get them healthy for the 28th. That's our No. 1 goal."