ELON, N.C.— The Montreat College men's cross country team opened its 2025 campaign Friday evening with the Elon Opener, a twilight meet hosted by Elon University. Running a 6k against almost exclusively NCAA Division I competition, the Cavaliers began their season with a fifth-place finish out of 10 teams.
 
Overall, the Cavs ended with 124 points, equal to East Carolina University; however, the Pirates owned the tiebreaker thanks to their initial three scorers finishing better than Montreat's first three scorers head-to-head. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers concluded 11 points better than Elon.
 
Newcomer Ronald Way led Montreat across the 6k marker with an 18:44.6 time. Way's effort proved to be the ninth-fastest among the 88-runner field. Ryan Stade and Philip Riddle joined Way inside the meet's top 25 with 19^th- and 24^th-place performances, respectively. The former needed 18:58.1 to cross the finish line, while the latter took 19:14.7 to close out his race.
 
Two additional Cavs secured top-50 times to wrap up the team's 124-point showing. Elijah Eppley utilized his 19:33.9 result to finish 35^th individually, and Brock Lauer ended 49^th overall thanks to his time of 19:54.1.
 
Matthew Morin also competed for Montreat on Friday. The Devers, Texas native finished his 6k in 20:49.0, good for 70^th and a personal best.
 
"Great start for our men coming off some adversity to begin the year," said head coach Rylan Hincher. "Mixing it up with some really good teams in an awesome environment was a great way to open our season. Pumped to add a few more to this group in a few weeks and have our crew at full strength,"
 
For a look at results from the Elon Opener, click here.
 
Montreat remains in the state of North Carolina for its next action, the Queen City Invite, on Friday, Sept. 12. The men's race is slated to begin at 6:45 p.m. in Charlotte, N.C.