ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Montreat College men's track & field team remained in the area on Friday and Saturday by competing at the Asheville Bulldog Invite, hosted by UNC Asheville at Karl Straus Track. Across the two days of action, the Cavaliers' 18 entries appeared in 13 events, totaling 26 points to tie for ninth out of 13 scoring squads.
 
Friday's slate featured six events for the Cavs. In those competitions, Montreat accrued two top-five placements and a trio of personal bests. Drew Bryant corralled a pair of fifth-place finishes, doing so in both the long jump and the triple jump. In the former event, Bryant concluded fifth out of 20 participants with a mark of 6.62m. Meanwhile, the Candler, N.C. native cleared 1.83m in the latter event to end fifth of nine jumpers.
 
One of the Cavaliers' three personal bests on day one occurred in the field. William Wood finished 18^th out of 28 athletes in the hammer throw thanks to his 38.81m effort. The mark surpassed his previous top showing by 2.14m.
 
Montreat's other two personal bests from Friday took place on the track. Elijah Eppley shaved 3.40 seconds off his 1500m performance, this time crossing the finish line in 4:20.67 to place 24^th out of 35 runners. David Irabor slashed over one quarter of a second off his career best outdoor 200m time, sprinting to 26^th out of 50 with a 22.68-second race. Cameron Rice (21^st; 22.47 seconds) also ran in the 200m.
 
Saturday saw the Cavs achieve a handful of personal bests and top-10 placements as well. On the track, Montreat met both of those thresholds. In the 400m hurdles, Jordan Pippin and Yannick Kabera eclipsed their top career marks. Pippin placed fourth of 11 with his 56.53-second showing, while Kabera crossed the finish line in 58.08 seconds for sixth. The former trimmed 2.57 seconds off his personal best, and Kabera cut 1.32 seconds off his time.
 
The Cavaliers picked up two top-five efforts in the 4x400m relay. Just over four seconds off a national standard, the 'A' unit of Irabor, Pippin, Rice and Nathan Cremin utilized a 3:19.28 time to finish third out of six teams. Meanwhile, the foursome of Kabera, Kaden Knight, Sam Duncan and Bryant ended fifth with a 3:36.65 performance.
 
Rounding out the action on the track, Rice dashed his way to a 12^th-place finish out of 35 sprinters in the 100m thanks to his time of 10.76 seconds. Duncan (22^nd; 2:03.75), Knight (23^rd; 2:05.40) and Ethan Bishop (32^nd; 2:15.85) participated in a 33-runner 800m field. Bishop delivered a personal best, dicing 2.43 seconds off his prior top time.
 
Wood led the way in the field on Saturday, concluding 11^th out of 31 throwers in the discus. The freshman hurled his implement 40.73m. Bryant finished 27^th of 28 in the shot put, increasing his personal-best distance by two-hundredths of a meter to 9.24m.
 
For a look at results from the Asheville Bulldog Invite, click here.
 
The Montreat College men's track & field team remains in the state of North Carolina next week when it heads to Wake Forest University on Thursday and Friday for the Wake Forest Invitational.