Matthew Forrester recently finished second in the Big East Cross Country Championships on Friday, Oct. 31. Photo by Natalie Goo.
MARIA CLARA KOLLER | STAFF REPORTER | mkollerfernandez@butler.edu
Tough. No-nonsense. Ambitious. Lighthearted. Rugged.
Those were some of the words used by track and cross country head coach Matt Roe to describe graduate runner Matthew Forrester, who traveled to Indianapolis from South Africa. Since his arrival at Butler in 2022, the Centurion native has earned all of those titles, gaining national attention for his resilience as he continues to drive the track and cross-country team — currently Butler’s most successful athletic program — forward.
Throughout the course of his career, Forrester has displayed an unyielding mentality, a common thread present since the beginning of his running career. Despite being one of Butler’s most decorated athletes, the South African runner struggled early in his youth running days, often finding himself behind the rest of his age group.
“I think I started in grade six, so 10 years old, and I wasn’t very good at the start,” Forrester said. “I kept getting my ass handed to me, and I started getting better about two, three years later, when my dad forced me to train, and none of the other kids did. I just beat them like that.”
Though an underdog early on, Forrester untapped his potential through his work ethic — a recurring theme throughout the course of his running career. His tenacious mindset led him to a successful youth career in South Africa, winning the Under-18 Championship before trying his luck across the Atlantic.
Forrester came to the United States in 2021 when he started his collegiate career with a short but impactful stint at the University of Charleston, a Division II school in Virginia. Unsatisfied with the program, the Mountain East Cross Country Freshman of the Year entered the transfer portal looking for a bigger challenge.
“I was at a pretty bad college beforehand, and I just saw how good Butler’s competition level was,” Forrester said. “I thought that if I couldn’t be the man here, at least these guys could show me how to step up.”
As he entered the transfer portal, Forrester was discovered and contacted by the Butler staff. Having already seen him at a previous meet, Roe was intrigued by Forrester’s strong academic profile and athletic ambition.
“When people are in the transfer portal, we have to see if they’re an academic fit for us,” Roe said. “He was a lead student; he went to arguably the best high school in South Africa, Pretoria Boys High School. He wasn’t heavily trained, he had pretty good marks for his training background, and he really connected with my assistant on the phone in our initial call. He seemed really ambitious, and we connected really well. So we offered him [a spot], and the rest is history.”
Forrester’s driven spirit ignited a connection between one of the most decorated coach-athlete duos at Butler. However, the path to success was not always straightforward. Making the jump from Division II to Division I meant he had his work cut out for him as he entered a vastly different competitive atmosphere.
One of Forrester’s longest-serving and lauded teammates, graduate runner Jesse Hamlin, has run alongside him since he arrived in 2022. Hamlin credits the locker room culture as a key catalyst in Forrester’s development and personal success.
“When he came in, he didn’t necessarily like to run a lot,” Hamlin said. “At his old college, he definitely was able to run a lot less. But I think him buying into the culture here, just running tough [and] running a lot [helped him grow].”
Once again, Forrester found himself in a familiar position: starting as an underdog. In the same way his father had pushed him to train when he was younger, Roe and his teammates helped him capitalize on his talent, allowing Forrester to realize the true reach of his ambition. Once the Centurion native assimilated to life as a Bulldog, he exploded, consistently earning All-Big East and All-Region honors as well as being an Outdoor Big East finalist in 2023 and Indoor Big East champion in 2024.
Forrester humbly credits his success to his faith and the healthy atmosphere of Butler’s track and cross country team.
“First, I thank God for my talent,” Forrester said. “But then, Coach Roe is the man, I think he knows exactly what he’s doing, and I need him to be tough on me, because I don’t always see where I should be, and then the guys just push me day in, day out. I love the atmosphere here, it is just so healthy.”
However, his career as a Bulldog came with its own challenges. In 2024, Forrester redshirted the outdoor season due to a fractured sacrum. Not a stranger to adversity, the graduate student-athlete once again found himself in a familiar position as he relied on his team to move forward.
Forrester’s indomitable will allowed him to come back, seemingly without skipping a beat.
“I think it’s so important to surround yourself with teammates that will lift you up when times are bad,” Forrester said. “So when I fractured my sacrum, I just had to spend good time with the guys and remind myself why I wanted to get back. It’s less so for the running and more for the community.”
Throughout the course of his career, Forrester has consistently been described as perseverant, ambitious and dedicated, whether it is by his peers, coaches or the media. Even though there are countless occasions where he has shown his grit, the epitome of the South African’s unwavering mentality was put on display at the NCAA Division I East First Round in May of this year, when he qualified for the Championships despite losing his shoe early on.
“It was probably about 2K into a 5K qualifier for nationals, and then some guy flat-tired me,” Forrester said. “His spike got caught in my heel and just ripped [my shoe] off. It sucked because I knew I had to just finish the race to get through, [and] I was in a pretty good position, so it was just really about knowing it was going to hurt, but going through with it and then just staying locked in. I thought if I could finish, it [would] be a pretty cool story.”
The image of Forrester’s bloody and blistered foot has become synonymous with his irrepressible and steadfast spirit, which Roe has described as a catalyst in the team’s winning culture.
“I think our program is centered around toughness and having a great approach and mindset, and [although] we had that prior to him or his arrival, he’s definitely been an accelerant for that,” Roe said. “He runs to win, and he has an edge to him. We’re always trying to create a sharper edge for our program in terms of competitiveness, in terms of habits [and] ambition, and he’s really put a lot of fuel on that fire that we already had burning.”
One recurring characteristic both Roe and Hamlin spoke about was Forrester’s easygoing spirit. Even in one of the most competitive and cutthroat environments in college sports, he stays lighthearted, often singing songs during the race to take his mind off the pressure.
“I sing a lot of songs before the race,” Forrester said. “I always listen to some Christian metal. So then I’ve got to sing it back to myself, just to keep me locked in a good rhythm and keep my head in a healthy space.”
The graduate runner has displayed time and time again the ambition Roe perceived when he first spoke to Forrester, an ambition which a lost shoe or a fractured sacrum could not yield. Forrester’s impact goes beyond his numerous All-American, All-Region and All-Big East honors to the culture of the program itself. Throughout his time as a Bulldog, he has raised the standards of the program, leaving it better than he found it.
“He always brings a positive attitude,” Hamlin said. “He’s always striving to make [others] tougher, raising the level of accountability, calling people out when they need to be, but also being a good friend too.”
Forrester’s story navigates between different backgrounds, locker rooms and even continents. However, one aspect has remained constant throughout his formative career. With the odds stacked against him, whether it is in Indianapolis, Virginia or South Africa, Forrester has found a way to relentlessly win time and time again — while never forgetting to have fun in the process.
