[SOLVED] multi column/custom query Page Template - excerpts and <--more--> tag

I'm using JUGGLEDAD's multi column/custom query Page Template to display excerpts of posts on a blog page. Works like a charm.

However, the template seems to be ignoring the use of <!--more--> in posts when I use it to limit exceprt length, and use the amount of words set in the Atahualpa exceprt theme option instead.

Any way I can get the template to limit the experpt when <!--more--> is used in a post?