The 2023 cross country season kicks off this weekend and the Bulldogs will look to carry their 2022 momentum into the fall. The Butler men are ranked No. 19 in the initial USTFCCCA national poll, while the Butler women are a young group who will continue to grow throughout the campaign.
 
Butler's men are in search of the program's fourth consecutive NCAA Championships berth. In recent years, the Bulldogs have finished 21^st (2022), 28^th (2021) and 13^th (in the spring 2021 championships) on the national level.
 
In the Great Lakes region, the Butler men are third in the USTFCCCA preseason rankings, trailing only Wisconsin and Notre Dame in the polls. Villanova is the only BIG EAST team in front of Butler in the preseason national poll.
 
Coach Matt Roe's Bulldogs will not feature All-American Barry Keane, who exhausted his cross country eligibility with a 17^th-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Championships following wins at both the BIG EAST Championships and NCAA Great Lakes Regional.
 
Jesse Hamlin headlines the group of Butler returners after finishing second to Keane at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional a season ago. He redshirted the 2023 outdoor track season, but finished seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 3,000 meters.
 
Matthew Forrester, fresh off representing his home country of South Africa at the 2023 World University Games and finishing tenth in the steeplechase and 12^th in the 5,000 meters against a stellar field, joins Will Minnette and Jack McMahon as Bulldogs who also competed at the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Both Minnette and McMahon posted Top 30 finishes at the 2022 Great Lakes Regional; McMahon went on to qualify for the NCAA East First Round in outdoor track in both the 5,000 and 10,000 in 2023.
 
Transfer Florian Le Pallec arrives from Cal Baptist with a resume that includes WAC titles in cross country, the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters. Martin Kovacech comes to the Butler program from the Czech Republic with his most recent accolade being an appearance at the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships in the steeplechase.
 
David Slapak and William Zegarski both redshirted the 2022 cross country season, but should be significant contributors this fall. Slapak placed 11^th at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships, representing Czech Republic. Zegarski capped off his freshman outdoor track campaign by earning a spot in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA East First Round. William Cuthbertson also redshirted the 2022 season after arriving at Butler from Wagner, where he was a 10-time all-conference selection in the NEC.
 
This group will be pushed by several veteran returners and a promising group of newcomers.
 
Butler's women are a young and promising group. The Bulldogs return five of their seven runners from the 2022 NCAA Great Lakes Regional squad, which finished eighth.
 
That group includes Abby Olson, Ashlyn Minton, Morgan Werner, Lexi Affolter, and Abby Fostveit. Olson led the returners with a Top 50 finish in the regional after finishing 27^th at the BIG EAST Championships.
 
Wiktoria Klebowska arrived at Butler midyear as a graduate transfer from Cal Baptist. Her time of 10:26.55 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Bryan Clay Invitational was good enough to qualify her in the field at the NCAA East First Round, but an injury ended her outdoor season.
 
Caitlin Rose graduated from Arizona State, but will finish her collegiate career at Butler. She joins a talented group of newcomers that have the potential to both immediately and on a long-term basis impact the program.
 
Butler's women open the season ranked tenth in the Great Lakes Regional according to the USTFCCCA preseason polls.
 
Butler opens the season Friday at the Vic Godfrey Open in Kenosha, Wis. The Wayne E. Dannehal Cross Country Course utilized for that meet will also host the 2023 BIG EAST Championships Oct. 28.