The Montreat College cross-country teams had an exhausting day on Thursday, September 2. Of course, they didn't actually race that day, but rather they hosted 700 runners as 35 high school teams participated in the Cavalier Kickoff Classic meet hosted on the Black Mountain campus. So it was a tired Cavalier squad which traveled to Cullowhee, NC to face Western Carolina and four other strong teams in the Western Carolina University Open on Friday, September 3. 

Western won its own event with a display of speed that featured overall men's winner Josey Weaver, a junior who covered the 5k (3.1 mile) course in 15:35.70. Coming in seventh overall (out of more than 60 harriers) was Montreat College senior Ben Hall, who finished 33 seconds behind the winner in a time of 16:09.30. 

Cavaliers Hunter Howe, Winston Rheinbolt, Jared Nielsen, and Alex Brito rounded out the top five Montreat finishers as Head Coach Jose Larios' team came in 5^th out of six squads. Western won handily with a composite team score of 39. Winthrop, Mars Hill, and UNC-Asheville our-pointed Montreat, with Gardner-Webb coming in last.

On the women's side, Lindsay Mizok ran the 2-mile course in 13:04.70 to place 20^th among the women and pace the Cavaliers. Teammates Kim Hibbert, Laurel Sitze, and Kimberly Ott finished 2-3-4 for Larios, though the team's lack of a fifth finisher kept them from registering an official team time and place.