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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Men's Little 500 teams struggle with faults at qualifications

Riders from Lambada Chi Alpha fall during their first attempt to qualify for the Little 500 on Saturday. After attempting a second time, Lambada finished in seventh place with a time of 2:26.133.

It was a nightmare scenario for the Sigma Alpha Mu team — it was raining and windy, and the first two attempts ended with faults.

Plus, the team is composed of just two riders.

Yet somehow the duo of senior Sam Lansat and sophomore Adam Goot recorded a time of 2:34.166, good enough to qualify Sigma Alpha Mu in 24th place for the 67th running of Little 500.

Throughout the day of qualifications Saturday at Bill Armstrong Stadium, many men’s teams struggled with faults. Twenty-one teams, including three that qualified in the top 10, made multiple attempts to qualify.

Lansat and Goot said they weren’t going to let any obstacle stand in their way of qualifying for the Little 500.

“It was a little crazy because we had never been to a third attempt in my last four years, and it started raining,” Lansat said. “It was windy. It was late in the day. We started questioning ourselves, but we stayed positive and knew we could do it.”

Overcoming obstacles was an important theme of the day.

Senior Charlie Hammon’s Black Key Bulls team had to overcome a fault during an exchange on its first attempt. He said that likely cost his team time during their second attempt in an effort to avoid another fault but knew, as a captain, he had to keep a level head to calm his team’s nerves.

“It was a tough day for us, Hammon said. “We haven’t faulted in the last six years. Going into our second attempt, I just wanted to make sure we that we kept it together and had clean exchanges and try to go as fast on the laps as possible.”

Coming into the day, the Black Key Bulls expected to place in the top three or even win the pole position. The pole was ultimately taken by Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which recorded a time of 2:22.580.

Despite a time of 2:26.451, which put Black Key Bulls in eighth overall, Hammon said he is still optimistic about his team’s Little 500 chances.

“I think it’s a blessing in disguise to not do as well as we should have, it takes a little pressure off of us,” Hammon said. “It’s kind of nice to be done with it and know that we’re in the race. The worst case scenario is that you don’t race Little 5.”

The weather played a major factor for men’s teams who rode later in the afternoon, because rain picked up around 5 p.m. as several teams wrapped up their first attempts and others began their third.

Young Pioneers, the all-Chinese team in their second year of existence, was the one of the men’s teams with two faults. By the time they had their third attempt, heavy rain was pouring down in the stadium. Their final rider turned the last corner and crossed the finish line just .169 seconds short of qualifying.

Five other teams - Delta Upsilon, Phi Kappa Tau, Delta Sigma Phi, Pi Kappa Phi and Alpha Kappa Lambda - fell short of Young Life’s 33rd best time of 2:39.510, which kept them from qualifying for Little 500.

At the end of the day, the 33 teams who made the field had one thing in mind.

“If we can qual, we can race,” Goot said.

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