On Cleirigh Buttner: An elite talent at the international level ... Irish national champion in the 800 meters in 2016 and has represented her country at the 2017 IAAF World Championships and the European Athletics Championships ... Was named the Athletics Ireland U23 Athlete of the Year in 2016 ... Four-time All-American, seven-time BIG EAST champion and six-time Penn Relays champion entering her senior season ... Collegiate honors include being named the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Athlete of the Year for the 2017 outdoor season and being the Penn Relays College Women's Athlete of the Meet for the relay events the same year ... Top individual event is the 800 meters, in which her lifetime best is 2:01.98 ... Holds the indoor school record in the 800 meters (2:02.97) and is also the school record holder in the 600 meters (1:31.55) ... Ranks second in school history in the Mile (4:33.16) ... Has risen to the occasion on the biggest of stages during her career, and is an incredible competitor with a powerful stride and a fearless mentality ... Vocal leader on the Villanova team ... One of the nation's top athletes to watch during the coming year.
International Competition: Irish national champion in the 800 meters in June 2016 ... Won the title at the Glohealth National Senior Track and Field Championships in Santry, Ireland with a time of 2:04.72 ... Produced a margin of victory in the final of more than five seconds ... Her time of 2:17.83 in the preliminary heats was the fastest in the field entering the final ... Competed at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam, Netherlands in July 2016 and had a time of 2:04.97 in the first round of the 800 meters ... That was the fastest time that did not move on to the semifinal round ... Put an impressive cap on her 2016 summer season at the British Milers Club Grand Prix on July 9 in Solihull, England when she ran a personal best time of 2:01.98 in the 800 meters ... Finished seventh at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Poland in July 2017 ... Earned an invitation to the IAAF World Championships in the 800 meters based on the descending order list of times for the current season.
2017 Cross Country: Competed at both the BIG EAST Championships and the NCAA Championships ... Second finisher for Villanova at the NCAA meet, where she came in 88th overall with a time of 20:37.4 over 6,000 meters to help the Wildcats finish 12th in the team standings ... Earned second team All-BIG EAST honors after finishing 18th with a time of 21:09.8 at the conference meet ... Helped Villanova win its record 15th conference title.
2017 Outdoor: Honorable mention All-American in the 800 meters ... Mid-Atlantic Region Track Athlete of the Year ... BIG EAST champion in the 1500 meters and the 4x400 meter relay ... Penn Relays College Women's Athlete of the Meet for the relay events ... Advanced to the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters for the second straight year ... Secured her spot at the national meet by finishing first in the national quarterfinal heats at the NCAA East Preliminary meet ... Her time of 2:02.11 was the fastest she has run during the collegiate season and just off her lifetime best (2:01.98) set in July 2016 ... It was also the fastest time recorded in the national quarterfinal heats at either the East or West preliminaries ... Began competition at the NCAA East Preliminary with a time of 2:07.52, which ranked her 14th overall in the national first round heats ... Advanced to the national semifinals in Oregon and tallied a time of 2:07.14 in that race ... Recorded the fastest time in the 1500 meters at the BIG EAST Championships during both the preliminary heats and the final ... Was clocked in 4:28.25 during the preliminaries, then won the BIG EAST title with a winning time of 4:28.17 ... Also anchored the Wildcats to a BIG EAST crown in the 4x400 meter relay ... Ran the final leg of the race in 54.48 to help Villanova record a winning time of 3:44.34 in the relay ... Instrumental part of Villanova pulling off a rare distance triple at the Penn Relays, where the team won Championship of America titles in all three distance relays ... Ran the 800 meter leg of the distance medley relay on the first day at Penn, producing a split of 2:05.78 en route to the Wildcats winning with a time of 10:53.97 ... Over the next two days, anchored both the 4x1500 meter relay and the 4x800 meter relay ... Had a split of 4:11.6 on the final leg of the 4x1500 relay, which would have been the fastest time in the nation at the time of the race if it had been an open race ... Villanova won that relay in 17:25.85 ... Had a split of 2:04.10 on the anchor leg of the 4x800 relay, which Villanova won in 8:24.87 ... The distance triple was the ninth ever by a women's team since the 4x1500 meter relay was introduced in 1989, and the sixth time the Wildcats have accomplished the feat ... Anchored the 4x400 meter relay at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational, where Villanova's third-place time of 3:39.74 ranked as the 10th-fastest time in school history ... Tallied a third place finish in the 800 meters with a time of 2:03.07 at the Florida Relays.
2017 Indoor: First team All-American in the Mile ... Named the Most Outstanding Track Performer at the BIG EAST Championships after winning the 800 meters individually and leading the Wildcats to conference titles in both the distance medley relay and the 4x400 meter relay ... Broke her own school record in the 800 meters during the season and also established a new personal best time in the Mile ... Registered an eighth place finish in the final of the Mile at the NCAA Championships ... Crossed the finish line in the final with a time of 4:34.78 after ranking sixth in the preliminary heats with a time of 4:35.79 ... Her eighth place finish in the final marked her first career top-8 finish in an individual event at the national meet ... Won the BIG EAST title in the 800 meters with a winning time of 2:06.63 in the final ... Also had the fastest time in the preliminaries (2:12.16) ... Led off the distance medley relay and gave Villanova an early lead en route to an eventual winning time of 11:01.14 in the relay ... That time secured the DMR's berth in the national meet ... Anchored the 4x400 meter relay with a split of 54 seconds and change to help the Wildcats win the relay in 3:42.06 ... The winning time represented the third-fastest indoor mark in school history in the 4x400 relay ... Ran the 800 meters in 2:02.97 on the second night of the Columbia East-West Challenge on January 28 ... That broke the previous indoor school record of 2:03.74 which she had set a year earlier at the Villanova Invitational ... Anchored the distance medley relay to a runner-up finish and a time of 11:07.90 on the first night of the Columbia meet ... Recorded a personal best time of 4:33.16 in the Mile at the FastTrack National Invitational ... That mark was the fastest in the nation at the time of the race ... Opened the indoor season by winning the 800 meters in 2:08.27 at the Gotham Cup.
2016 Cross Country: Earned Mid-Atlantic All-Region and first team All-BIG EAST accolades for the third straight year ... One of the top two runners in the Villanova lineup in all five of her races ... Led the team with a seventh place overall finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional ... Registered a time of 20:39.3 over 6000 meters in that race, and her performance helped the Wildcats finish second as a team at the regional meet to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships ... Came in 85th with a time of 20:46.4 at the NCAA Championships ... Runner-up behind teammate Angel Piccirillo at the BIG EAST Championships (20:58.7) ... Began her season by finishing sixth at the Paul Short Run (20:17) ... Came in 32nd in a field of more than 200 runners at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational (20:45.9).
2016 Outdoor: Her accomplishments for the season included second team All-America honors and a BIG EAST title in the 800 meters, as well as anchoring Villanova to a Championship of America title in the 4x1500 meter relay at the Penn Relays ... She split 4:21.7 on the final leg of the 4x1500 relay and pulled away in the final 250 meters to deliver the Wildcats to the victory ... Also led off the distance medley relay at the Penn Relays and had a split of 3:28.14 over 1200 meters to help Villanova finish third in the relay with a time of 11:21.77 ... Reached the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters and recorded a time of 2:04.72 to come in 10th overall in the national semifinal round in Eugene, Ore. ... First Villanova runner since 2008 to reach the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters ... Ranked fifth overall with a time of 2:03.72 in the national quarterfinal heats of the 800 meters during the NCAA East Preliminary ... Opened that meet by crossing the finish line in 2:06.04 to stand in 13th place after the national first round heats ... Won the BIG EAST title in the 800 meters with a winning time of 2:06.82 in the final ... Also led the field in the preliminaries, when she recorded a time of 2:08.09 ... Anchored Villanova to All-BIG EAST honors in the 4x800 meter relay, as the team finished third in the relay with a time of 8:56.05 ... Finished second in the elite section of the 800 meters at the Larry Ellis Invitational with a collegiate-best time of 2:03.52 (she later ran a lifetime best 2:01.98 during the summer) ... Opened the outdoor season by finishing eighth in the 400 meters in 55.97 and running the third leg of the 4x400 meter relay which finished with a time of 3:55.82 at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational ... One week following the end of the collegiate season, she posted a then-personal best time of 2:02.37 in the 800 meters in a qualifying meet at Princeton ... That time earned her a spot in the European Athletics Championships.
2016 Indoor: Broke the indoor school record in the 800 meters with her time of 2:03.74 at the Villanova Invitational ... The previous mark of 2:04.69 had stood for nearly 28 years ... Qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters and earned second team All-America honors ... Finished in ninth place in the preliminary heats at the national meet with a time of 2:04.73 ... Earned All-BIG EAST honors in the distance medley relay ... Ran the 400 meter leg of the relay and helped Villanova finish second overall with a time of 11:26.12 ... Ran the second leg of the 4x400 meter relay, in which the Wildcats placed fourth with a time of 3:48.40 ... Had the fastest time in the preliminary heats of the 800 meters at the BIG EAST meet, as she crossed the finish line in 2:09.60 ... Won the invitational section of the 500 meters at the Penn State National ... Her winning time of 1:12.60 puts her fifth on the all-time Villanova performance list in the 500 meters ... Also ran the third leg of the 4x400 relay at Penn State and helped the Wildcats come in third in the relay in 3:49.68 ... Opened the indoor season at the Great Dane Classic, where she finished second in the 1000 meters in 2:49.13 and was part of a 4x400 relay lineup which tallied a time of 4:01.06.
2015 Cross Country: Ran in six races during the season and earned All-BIG EAST and All-Mid Atlantic Region honors for the second straight year ... Top finisher for the Wildcats at the NCAA Championships and the Pre-NCAA Meet ... Also was the second Villanova runner at three other races ... Finished ninth overall at the BIG EAST Championships, where her time of 20:06.6 on the 6,000 meter course was a personal best and moved her into eighth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list for that distance ... Came in 17th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional with a time of 21:25.2 ... Finished 113th at the NCAA Championships (20:56.7) ... Led the team with a 28th place finish out of 311 runners at the Pre-NCAA Meet (20:33.2) ... Finished 10th overall and was the second Villanova finisher at the Princeton Interregional Meet (21:12.8) ... Opened the season by coming in eighth out of 75 runners at the Main Line Invitational ... Finished third on the team and recorded a time of 16:58 over three miles in that race.
2015 Outdoor: Penn Relays champion in the distance medley relay and the 4x800 meter relay ... All-BIG EAST in the 800 meters and the 4x400 meter relay ... Qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary and advanced to the national quarterfinal round of the 800 meters ... Ran the 800 meters leg of the DMR at the Penn Relays with a split of 2:09.91 to help Villanova win the Championship of America title in the event for a fourth straight year ... Also ran the third leg of the 4x800 relay two days later and produced a split of 2:07.83 as the Wildcats won that Championship of America title for the third year in a row ... Recorded a time of 2:05.14 in the national quarterfinals of the 800 meters at the NCAA East Preliminary ... That time is a personal best for an open race and was good for a 13th place overall finish in the quarterfinals ... Advanced out of the national first round by winning her heat in 2:06.06 ... Competed in the preliminary heats of the 800 meters at the ECAC Championship and tallied a time of 2:05.66 to secure her entry at the NCAA East Preliminary ... Recorded a runner-up finish in the 1500 meters at the BIG EAST Championships, where she posted a personal best time of 4:21.45 in the final ... Was also in second place overall after clocking a time of 4:27.08 in the preliminary heats ... Ran the second leg of the 4x400 relay at the BIG EAST meet, where Villanova came in second in the relay with a time of 3:41.83 ... Opened the outdoor season by finishing fourth in the seeded section of the 1500 meters (4:22.56) at the Colonial Relays ... Finished third in the 800 meters (2:06.76) at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational and helped the Wildcats to a fourth place finish in the 4x400 relay (3:44.91) by running the third leg of the relay.
2014-15 Indoor: Received honorable mention All-America honors as part of the Wildcats lineup for the distance medley relay at the NCAA Championships ... Earned individual All-BIG EAST honors for a runner-up finish in the 1000 meters at the BIG EAST Championships, while also running the third leg of the Wildcats champion 4x800 meter relay at the conference meet ... Accounted for valuable team points as Villanova won its second straight team title at the BIG EAST meet ... Won her preliminary heat in the 1000 meters with a time of 2:48.77 and had the fastest overall time going into the final ... Placed second in the final with a personal best time of 2:47.25 ... Produced a split of 2:08.13 on the third leg of the 4x800 relay, with the Wildcats posting a winning time of 8:33.94 ... The time of 8:33.94 broke a 23-year old meet record, with the old record having also been set by a Villanova relay ... Won her first collegiate indoor race when she captured the Invitational section of the 600 meters at the Metro Team Challenge ... Produced a winning time of 1:31.55 in the race ... Competed in the 800 meters at both the Penn State National and the Iowa State Classic ... The better of her two times was a mark of 2:08.04 in a 10th place finish at the Iowa State meet ... Finished third at the Penn State National in 2:09.55 ... Ran the third leg of the 4x400 meter relay at the Metro Team Challenge and helped Villanova finish fourth in the relay with a time of 3:51.19 ... Also anchored the 4x400 relay at the Penn State National, where the Wildcats had a time of 4:05.63.
2014 Cross Country: Earned All-Mid Atlantic Region and All-BIG EAST honors ... Finished in 17th place overall and was second in the Wildcats lineup at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional ... Led the team with a 12th place finish at the BIG EAST Championships ... Garnered BIG EAST Female Athlete of the Week honors after making her collegiate debut at the Washington Invitational ... Finished first in the team's lineup and was 17th overall at the prestigious Washington meet with a season-best time of 20:54 over 6,000 meters ... Came in third on the team and eighth overall at the Princeton Invitational to help lead Villanova to the team title at the meet.
Colaiste Iosagain: Holds a record six consecutive National Schools Cross Country titles from 2009-14 ... Was unbeaten in six years of competitive schools competition ... 2014 National Schools U19 1500 meters champion ... Holds the National Schools U19 800 meters record (2:03.81) ... 2012 National Schools U17 800 meters and 1500 meters champion ... 2012 National Schools U17 800 meters record holder (2:10.32) ... 2011 Tailteann Games 800 meters record holder (2:07.78) ... 2011 National Schools U17 1500 meters Gold Medalist ... 2010 National Schools U15 1500 meters record holder (4:28.10) ... 2010 SIAB International Championships Silver Medalist, Scotstoun ... 2009 National Schools U15 1500 meters Gold Medalist ... Also lettered in gaelic football ... Earned her junior certificate -- all honors.
Personal: Born 7/21/95 in Dublin, Ireland ... Parents are Merv Buttner and Fiona Cleirigh ... Siblings are Aifric and Fionn ... Communication major.
PERSONAL BESTS (TRACK)
400 Meters 55.57 High School
500 Meters 1:12.60 2016 Penn State National600 Meters 1:31.55 2015 Metro Team Challenge
800 meters (open) (non-VU) 2:01.98 2016 British Milers Club Grand Prix
800 Meters (open) (VU) 2:02.11 2017 NCAA East Preliminary
800 Meters (relay) 2:03.81 High School1000 Meters 2:47.25 2015 BIG EAST Championships
1500 Meters (relay) 4:11.6 2017 Penn Relays
1500 Meters (open) 4:21.45 2015 BIG EAST Championships
Mile 4:33.16 2017 FastTrack National Invitational
PERSONAL BESTS (CROSS COUNTRY)
3 Miles 16:58 2015 Main Line Invitational
6000 Meters 20:06.6 2015 BIG EAST Championships
CAREER AWARDS (Cross Country)
All-Mid Atlantic Region 2014, 2015, 2016All-BIG EAST 2014, 2015, 2016
All-BIG EAST (Second Team) 2017BIG EAST Female Athlete of the Week September 29-October 5, 2014
CAREER AWARDS (Indoor Track)
All-American (First Team) 2017 (Mile)
All-American (Second Team) 2016 (800 Meters)
All-American (Honorable Mention) 2015 (Distance Medley Relay)
BIG EAST Champion 2017 (800 Meters)
BIG EAST Champion 2017 (4x400 Meter Relay)
BIG EAST Champion 2015 (4x800 Meter Relay)
BIG EAST Champion 2017 (Distance Medley Relay)All-BIG EAST 2017 (800 Meters)
All-BIG EAST 2015 (1000 Meters)All-BIG EAST 2017 (4x400 Meter Relay)
All-BIG EAST 2015 (4x800 Meter Relay)
All-BIG EAST 2016, 2017 (Distance Medley Relay)
Most Outstanding Track Performer 2017: BIG EAST Championships
BIG EAST Women's Track Athlete of the Week 2017: January 23-29, February 6-12
School Record Holder 600 Meters - 1:31.55 (Jan. 23, 2015)
School Record Holder 800 Meters - 2:02.97 (Jan. 28, 2017)
CAREER AWARDS (Outdoor Track)
All-American (Second Team) 2016 (800 Meters)
Penn Relays Champion 2015, 2017 (4x800 Meter Relay)
Penn Relays Champion 2015, 2017 (Distance Medley Relay)
Penn Relays Champion 2016, 2017 (4x1500 Meter Relay)
BIG EAST Champion 2016 (800 Meters)
BIG EAST Champion 2017 (1500 Meters)
BIG EAST Champion 2017 (4x400 Meter Relay)
All-BIG EAST 2016 (800 Meters)
All-BIG EAST 2015, 2017 (1500 Meters)
All-BIG EAST 2015, 2017 (4x400 Meter Relay)
All-BIG EAST 2016 (4x800 Meter Relay)
USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Track Athlete of the Year 2017
Penn Relays College Women's Athlete of the Meet (Relays) 2017
BIG EAST Women's Track Athlete of the Week 2017: April 24-30
CAREER AWARDS (Academics)
USTFCCCA All-Academic Team 2014, 2015, 2016 (Cross Country)
USTFCCCA All-Academic Team 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 (Track)
BIG EAST All-Academic Team 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17
BIG EAST TOP 8 FINISHES
800 Meters 1st 2016 Outdoor, 2017 Indoor
1500 Meters 1st 2017 Outdoor
4x400 Meter Relay 1st 2017 Indoor, 2017 Outdoor
4x800 Meter Relay 1st 2015 Indoor
Distance Medley Relay 1st 2017 Indoor1000 Meters 2nd 2015 Indoor
1500 Meters 2nd 2015 Outdoor
Distance Medley Relay 2nd 2016 Indoor
4x400 Meter Relay 3rd 2015 Outdoor
4x800 Meter Relay 3rd 2016 Outdoor
4x400 Meter Relay 4th 2016 Indoor
