2023-24 REVIEW: Gaston College cross country continues making progress
In looking back on the 2023 season for the Gaston College women's cross country team, the word that comes to mind is "consistency."
For the second year in a row, the Rhinos sent a runner to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) cross country championships. For the second year in a row, Gaston College finished as Region 10 runner-up.
Coach Kody Kubbs points to two developments in his review of the season—then freshman Keirieonna Wilson's appearance in the national championships and a young team's progress over the course of the season.
"Obviously, Keirieonna going to the nationals was huge," Kubbs said, "but I thought our team sticking to our regimen and seeing the results was big. We were prepared to peak at the Region 10 championship, and our times dropped dramatically on that course. It was a testament to their hard work throughout the season."
In her historic freshman season, Wilson logged the school's best-ever finish in the national meet Nov. 11 in Huntsville, Ala., coming in 85th out of 180 runners in the Division I event with a time of 20 minutes, 27.5 seconds.
Both her finish and time were school bests in the meet and came in a year in which the South Iredell High product was Gaston College's individual medalist in all five races in which she competed.
Two weeks earlier, on Oct. 28, Wilson finished third in the Region 10 championship at the Cleveland Community College course in Shelby with a school-record 20:51.0 time to earn her spot in the national.
And Wilson finished with a flourish by running her personal best in Huntsville, trimming 34 seconds off her previous personal best in the Region 10 meet.
At the Region 10 meet in Shelby, the Rhinos' second and third runners for most of the season - freshman Abigail Presley and sophomore Stefani Vergara-Delgado - were unable to compete; however, four freshmen stepped up to give Gaston College a team score of 44.
Abigale Harris (28:14.5) finished 13th for a team score of nine, Alayna Cook (29:42.4) 16th for a 10, Abbygale King (30:19.4) 18th for an 11 and Maytalene Lopez (31:03.7) 20th for a 12.
There is already excitement for the upcoming fall 2024 campaign. Wilson, who improved her high school personal record by a minute and a half, returns for what should be a stellar sophomore season.
The other runners who continued to progress as freshmen are also back, led by King and Harris.
The team is not resting on its solid 2023 campaign. Kubbs said his returning runners have been training hard since March. Abbie King recently ran a 10K in Charleston, S.C., and "has been putting in the miles," Kubbs said.
Harris, another rising sophomore who has made the transition to cross country from high school softball, has emerged into a "solid mid-to-long distance runner."
The truth is Kubbs has a veteran team coming back and the goal is to qualify as a team for the national championships. He has commitments from the top two high school runners in Gaston County and hopes to sign "between four and six others that we are currently working on."