It wouldn't be Bloomington without unpredictable weather, and Saturday afternoon was a perfect example. After a week of sunny days, Little 500 riders mounted bikes and braved cold and wind for the second of the Little 500 series events. \n"Once again we had bad weather," said Alex Ihnen, IU Student Foundation assistant director and Little 500 coordinator. "There is strategy involved in whether you want to pull into the wind."\nSaturday's event marked the second of the Little 500 series events with the final event, Team Pursuit, set to take place Thursday. Miss-N-Out is divided into four rounds with approximately eight riders in the first round heat. Riders take four trips around the track, eliminating a rider at each lap. The final lap of the heat determines the winner and two runners up that will advance to the next round. The second round is made up of six riders from different heats with the same format as the first round but only two advance. The third round features eight riders per heat, and the final six riders of the round advance to the finals. The final round races the best six riders, and eliminates four riders and the final two riders take a prep lap and then race to the finish.\nThis year Kappa Kappa Gamma riders junior Alison Edwards and sophomore Meredith Horner advanced to the finals of the women's event and held hands as they crossed the finish line in an attempt to tie as the winner. Senior John Grant won in the men's event, making it his second series event win this year.
Second is best?\nGafombi must be sick of the number two. The team placed second in the 2002 Little 500 and Fall Cyclocross event. This year Grant has won two series events, two Gafombi riders were in the finals of Miss-N-Out, and the team is currently in second place behind Fiji in overall series events. \nBut second place and the number two isn't what the team wants to take away from the 2003 race. \n"John and I were actually talking about how two is our unlucky number," senior Michael Rubin said. "I think everyone out there wants to win. What we want to do is lay everything out on the track and know we did the best we could. There are a lot of variables out there. We want to do the best we can."\nDoing the best they can currently isn't so bad. Grant won his second series event and Rubin placed sixth in the event. The remaining two Gafombi riders, juniors Jason Fowler and Brandon Hurey, both made it to the semi finals. \nGrant said his strategy was to try to get good positioning and conserve energy.\n"Miss-N-Out is a good test of riders sprinting ability and handing skills on the track," he said. "The final heat included six of the fastest riders on the track. I guess one thing that helped me throughout the day was good positioning, that helped me ride well in the finals."\nSenior Luke Isenbarger of The Corleones took fourth place, finishing two places below his 2002 finish. Isenbarger said the pack riding in the event caused him to get eliminated for the final lap. \n"I ended up getting boxed in on that last sprint, so I kinda got screwed and couldn't get out," Isenbarger said. "That's part of the event. These guys Big John (Grant), (sophomore Craig) Luekens, (they had a) hell of a ride. They are strong guys and they pulled out on top, which was exciting. Gafombi pulled first in ITT and Miss-N-Out, they are doing well right now, looking strong, so it's good to see. They are all good guys."\nSecond place went to Luekens and third to senior Brad Davies, both of Dodds House. Fifth went to Sigma Pi rider junior John Comacho.
A two for one deal\nThey dropped like flies.\nOne by one.\nLap by lap. \nUntil there were two. Two teammates that is. \nUnder an overcast sky Saturday, with temperatures in the 30s, Miss-N-Out, the second Little 500 series event, crowned a new women's champion -- or two.\nJunior Alison Edwards and sophomore Meredith Horner, both of Kappa Kappa Gamma, crossed the finish line of the final lap hand in hand, neither wanting to defeat each other. But because of IUSF rules, a winner needs to be declared, and Horner was it. \n"I was excited to finish with Meredith," Edwards said. "She's my teammate, and we are very close. When I heard my number being called, I thought it was very funny. In my mind we finished together."\nThe finals, a six rider heat, featured four of the top 10 seeded women in the event, and only represented three teams. \nBesides Edwards and Horner, freshman teammate Jess Sapp also competed in the finals, finishing fifth. \nComing in third was top seeded junior Corey Bitzer of Alpha Gamma Delta. She was knocked out in the lap by lap elimination process by Edwards and Horner on the second to last lap of the final heat.\nWrapping up the finals were Team Athena seniors Melissa Stenger in fourth place and Allison Ware in sixth. \nThis was Bitzer's third Miss-N-Out finals, Edwards second and the first for the rest of the finals field.\nHowever, the excitement wasn't just during the last heat of the day.\nMiss-N-Out is the only Little 5 event to use numbers, and the only with an elimination process. This was the root for much confusion among riders. \nThere were instances when an eliminated rider would not move off the track. This caused for confusion and at times unsafe riding conditions because when the eliminated rider would realize he or she wasn't supposed to be there, he or she would slow down without regard for other riders.\n"It impedes the progress of the other riders," Kappa Alpha Theta coach Tom Schwoegler said. "There's nothing you can do about it, but it's not good sportsmanship." \nBesides the competition, much of the focus was on the frigid weather. For the second time in a week, the riders have had to bear almost freezing like conditions and compete in a full day of riding.\n"The weather definitely wasn't ideal," Edwards said. "We were hoping for warmer weather, but we got used to it. The warm-up wasn't good, once we'd finish our warm-up, we would get cold again. It was hard on our legs."\nLuckily, with the rain Bloomington received Friday evening, the track made for ideal racing conditions. \n"All the rain helped the track," Ihnen said. "The more it rains, the more water that holds the track in, the better it is. It is just more stable, and the more people can ride on it harder"
