Theta senior Liz Milne breaks ITT women's record by .02 seconds

Last year the now-graduated Bri Kovac set the Individual Time Trials record in a convincing fashion. Almost a full three seconds ahead of second place, it seemed as though it would be a long time before her record would fall.\nLast night, Kappa Alpha Theta senior Liz Milne obviously felt one year was long enough, winning the 2005 ITTs in a record-breaking fashion. Milne crossed the finish line at two minutes and 35.29 seconds, edging out Kovac's record by .02 seconds. \n"I seriously had no clue what my time was or how fast I was going," Milne said. "I just knew it hurt, so it had to be fast," \nMilne, armed with the simple battle plan of just going out and trying to increase her speed with each lap, was pretty shocked by her finish, she said. Milne's coach wasn't as surprised.\n"I told her before (ITTs) that I've been waiting for this event ever since (Collegiate Track Nationals) because Liz so thoroughly impressed me that day," said Tom Schwoegler, Theta's coach. "I said she is going to be the monster of Little 500 next year, and she is."\nOn top of setting a new ITT record, the women's field as a whole improved immensly. While last year, Teter senior Jessica Lindemann finished second with a time of two minutes and 38.2 seconds, this year that time would only warrant a seventh place. \n"Clearly the women, every year, are getting stronger and stronger," Lindemann said. "We are getting more depth so that's really exciting to see." \nAfter winning Qualifications on Saturday, Kappa Kappa Gamma kept the momentum rolling right into ITTs, placing riders in second, third and fourth places. In fact, just 30 minutes after Milne wrote her name atop the record books, Kappa senior Kelsey Cooper flirted with history herself, finishing .27 seconds shy of Milne in second place.\nCooper's teammates, senior Meredith Horner and senior Jess Sapp, weren't far behind posting times of 2:36.47 and 2:36.53.\n"I haven't been feeling so well lately, but I'm pretty pleased with my time," Sapp said. "I probably couldn't have done any better."\nLast year's second place team Teter posted two riders in the top-10: Lindemann and senior Mia Dragan.\nLindemann posted a second-place finish in 2004's race, but even though she beat her previous time, her time of 2:37.9 was only good enough for sixth place this year.\nDragan broke her previous time as well, finishing in 2:40.17, but she followed suite as she posted a seventh finish this year. Last year, she finished at the 13th position.\n"I would have liked to improve upon (last year's time) a little more," Lindemann said. "I feel like I should have gone a little harder on the third lap."\nITTs represent the first of three parts of the Spring Series Events including Miss-N-Out and Team Pursuit. Teams earn points for each event based on where they finish, and the team with the least amount of points at the end of the series earns the white jersey on race day.\n"(ITTs) are definitly good, beacuse you can see if a team finishes all their riders in the top-20 or something," Sapp said. "But Miss-N-Out is probably more of a measure because you do have the draft, and you do have the strategy, and you have to stay (on the track) longer."\n--Contact Staff Writer Andy Romey at aromey@indiana.edu and Sports Editor Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.