Butler breaks into Top 25 with individual, team Bubble Buster titles

TOLEDO, OHIO – Junior Katie Clark cruised to the individual title and Butler upset several nationally-ranked squads to claim the team championship at the Toledo Bubble Buster meet, hosted by the University of Toledo on Sept. 21.

The 14-team meet, Butler’s first full-team competition this fall, helped previously-unranked Butler take the No. 21 spot in the week three USTFCCCA Coaches’ poll. The top five teams remained unchanged, with Washington holding on to No. 1.

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Clark, running her first race in more than a year, pulled away from the field and covered the 4K distance in 13:04.8. She finished 15 seconds ahead of runner-up Sarah Pagano of Syracuse to claim the individual crown. Clark sat out last season as a redshirt.

Butler had three other runners place among the top 15 individuals in the 172-runner competition. Junior Kirsty Legg, also coming off a redshirt year, finished eighth overall in 13:27.2, while sophomore Mara Olson came in tenth in 13:30.9. Freshman Olivia Pratt, Butler’s fourth runner, wound up 13th in the race with a time of 13:36.2.

Butler won the team title with 72 total points, 14 points better than runner-up and then-23rd-ranked San Francisco. Toledo, then ranked No. 18, came in fourth, former No. 22 Syracuse came in fifth and then-No. 25 West Virginia finished 11th. The Bulldogs also finished ahead of Iowa, BYU and Portland, three other teams receiving votes in last week’s national poll.