Row 9 teams less than 1 second apart

Less than one second separates these three teams in Row 9. But the teams will need to make a surge if they want to reach the front of the pack. The defending champion Cutters found themselves in 25th for the race and look to charge to the front with a new crop of riders.\nNo. 25 Cutters (2:49.45)\nAfter winning the race last year, the Cutters have a lot of adjustments to make. With all rookie riders this year, they will have to make up for the loss of Hall of Fame inductee Chris Wojtowich.\nSeniors Chris Sahagun and Henrik Wahlberg, a former IU swimmer, look to lead the Cutters charge.\nSophomores and Bloomington natives Nick Pejeau and Ron Hanson will help them. Both have been working hard to help the Cutters keep its winning title.\nSophomore Nick Pechacek looks to bring his experience from long bike tours in the summer to the race.\nDoing the math, that's five riders. Only four can ride on race day. Sometime soon, a decision is going to have to be made on who will not get to race.\n"There is no real weak rider," Wahlberg said. "That's why we haven't decided which one of us isn't going to ride in the race. We may be considered underdogs, but we are confident."\nThe Cutters will have to catch the pack if they want to repeat as Little 500 champions.\nNo. 26 Pi Kappa Phi (2:50.25)\nPi Kappa Phi found themselves in Cocoa Beach, Fla., training for the race. This helped them prepare both physically and mentally, they said.\n"We want to finish without any regrets," sophomore rookie Todd Laderach said. "We are starting off with (senior) Brian (Wire), who should be able to help us catch the lead pack."\nSenior Ray Pryor and sophomore Nick Meyer make up the rest of the Pi Kappa Phi team.\nThey said they feel they have a lot of guys who can ride a good amount of laps at a fast pace, which should help them stay in the front pack.\nNo. 27 Forest (2:50.41)\nTraining in Bloomington at the IU Student Foundation training camp was a beneficial move for this group of rookies, they said.\n"It really helped us on our exchanges," junior Lucas Calhoun said. "We just started training in January, so I would say we have made a lot of progress."\nThe rest of the team consists of three freshmen -- De Javier Speller, Joey Pumo and Kevin Simonelic.\nWhile Forest does not have any specific goals, they said they would like to finish in the top 20.\nThey each plan on riding for an independent team next year.\nThe team motto, "under promise, over deliver," will hopefully help them achieve their goals, Calhoun said.