The Butler men will compete at the site of the 2026 NCAA Championships as they travel to Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 19 for the John McNichols Invitational hosted by Indiana State.
 
The Bulldog men have earned six consecutive appearances in the NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships and hope that their push for a seventh straight berth leads them to the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in November.
 
THE LINE-UP: Head coach Matt Roe's line-up for Saturday will include six Bulldogs making their season debut. William Zegarski leads the group and is the current BIG EAST cross country champion and placed 66^th nationally at the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Most recently, he earned second-team All-America honors in the 10,000 meters during the 2026 outdoor track and field season. Matteo Rosio, who was part of the 2025 NCAA squad, and Sean Byrnes, who represented the Bulldogs at the 2024 NCAA Championships, join Zegarski.
 
Kyle Grove, who was named BIG EAST Male Athlete of the Week after leading the Bulldogs at the season-opening Spartan Invitational, is also part of the line-up and joins Connor Latouf and Asher Propst as the only Bulldogs in the Championship Race to have competed already this fall. Seth Mahony, Graham Tomori, and freshman Simon Jeukenne round out the group with their respective season debuts.
 
THE FIELD: The Bulldogs, ranked No. 16 in the USTFCCCA preseason poll, will compete against a loaded field that includes 14 ranked teams: No. 6 Colorado, No. 7 Northern Arizona, No. 9 BYU, No. 10 Wisconsin, No. 11 Washington State, No. 12 Eastern Kentucky, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 19 Harvard, No. 20 Georgia, No. 21 Florida, No. 23 Air Force, No. 24 Cal Baptist, No. 26 Louisville, and No. 27 Stanford. In-state foes include Indiana, Purdue, host Indiana State, and IU Indy.
 
THE DETAILS: The men's 8k championship race will begin at 9:05 a.m. Butler will also have entries in the men's 8k open race at 10:05 a.m. All of that group competed alongside Grove, Latouf and Propst at Michigan State last weekend: Mick Temple, Owen Whitney, Kayden Elliott, Eli Ilg, and Caelan D'Onofrio.

RunnerSpace will broadcast this year's meet and live results will be available.
 
The Butler women are not competing in Terre Haute Saturday and are next in action Oct. 2 at the Joe Piane Invitational hosted by Notre Dame.