Cycling Club edged at NCAA Track Nationals

The IU Cycling Club concluded competition Monday at the NCAA Track Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. where they took 2nd place. \nSenior Jenn Wangerin defended her status as one of the nation's top collegiate riders by winning the women's 2K and points races. Other individual champions included freshman Josh Weir in the men's sprint and freshman Rahsaan Bahati in the men's points race. On the team side, IU won the coed race, Italian Pursuit. \n"We really came together as a team," Wangerin said. "It's the end of the season, so it's competitive, but it's also relaxed. Everyone is happy. It's a celebration."\nBahati's victory in the men's points race became the highlight of the weekend. Though the event is won individually, it is very much a team race. \n"It was the most exciting event I've ever seen," Wangerin said. "We finished first, third and fifth. It sealed second place for our team (overall). I was almost getting teary-eyed."\nOther team members said they agreed. \n"The points race was awesome," Hawkins said. "Even the judges and announcers were shaking our guys' hands after it was over."\nSenior Jason Mount, president of IUCC, also rode in the race. \n"I have never worked with a team that worked so well together," he said. "We rode a perfect race. To get three guys on the podium -- that's amazing.\n"We dominated," Mount added.\nThe second place finish is the team's best since its return to track nationals last year.\n"Considering this was the first time we've had a track nationals team in a while, second place is amazing," Wangerin said, "and we were so close, only 40 points away. We're definitely happy."\nJunior Jen Hawkins said the losses that created the 40 point differential were very close. \n"Forty points isn't much, and some races were so close that we only lost by a few feet,"\nshe said. "Jason (Mount) figured out that in a sense we only lost by about one second."\nMarian College, which has won the event three years consecutively, prevailed in the overall competition, but the IU team challenged them greatly. Hawkins said he knew the importance of cycling at Marian College. \n"Riding is a varsity sport at their school," she said, "so they can recruit and give money and scholarships to their team. IUCC is a club team, so riders don't get special benefits."\nMount said he knew that the odds favored Marian from the weekend's start. \n"To win the championship with seven riders, as we had, we would have had to ride a perfect weekend, and then hope that some things just fell our way," he said. "For example, if Penn State would have edged out Marian in the team pursuit, that's a lot of points there. We might have won. I think we rode to 98 percent of perfection, and the other two percent was things out of our control."\nWith the track season finished, many team members are resting. The next major series of cycling events, the fall cycling series, will start soon and team members have choices to make.\n"I'm definitely taking a break from the bike," Hawkins said. "I'll probably just do some cross training for the road season in February."\nThough the track season is over, IUCC looks forward to next year. The team is already working on improving their chances. \n"I'm hoping we can get more women interested in cycling at track nationals," Hawkins said. "If we had more women this year besides Jenn (Wangerin) and I, IU definitely would have won it."\nMount agreed. \n"You can take a strong men's team and do well, but to win, you need a good women's team. We had the best woman there in (Wangerin), but Marian had numbers. Our goal is to win next year"