AEPi Cycling down but not out of race

Alpha Epsilon Pi, a traditionally competitive fraternity in the Little 500 race, will be without a team this year as a result of the two-year ban placed on the fraternity Wednesday. \n“One of the cool things about joining a fraternity is participating in Little 500,” said freshman and AEPi member Jonah Murov. “It is very disappointing because I had been looking forward to it for a couple of years now.”\nLittle 500 rules state that if riders leave a fraternity or ride for an independent team and want to change affiliations, they technically have to sit out a year, said senior and former AEPi rider Michael Retter. But because the AEPi team hasn’t officially registered yet, members of the fraternity’s bike squad can race on an independent team without the year-long wait. However, the riders left without a team haven’t decided what they’ll do.\nRetter and senior Tom Askey, riders from last year’s AEPi 22nd-place team, decided to leave the fraternity in the fall largely because of their growing fear of the allegations that could have kept them from riding in the spring event. \n“Last semester, when things were going on with AEPi, we filed an appeal with the Little 500 to disband and ride as an independent team, and that was accepted,” Retter said. “The big thing for us was representing something that supported us, and that we supported, and that is one reason we filed the appeal. With all the things going on, it wasn’t something that we were able to justify riding for.”\nThose riders, along with seniors Scott Robertson and Scott Glidden, created an independent team, “Ride DMC,” in order to continue participating in the historic race.\n“It ends up being the best case now,” Retter said. “We have an extremely close bond, have trained harder than ever before, and finally have a team with a lot of experience. So it is going to be an exciting year for us.” \nWithout Retter and Askey, the AEPi team had only one returning rider from last year: sophomore Jason Kahn. Even though he fully supported his former teammates’ decisions to leave the fraternity, Kahn rebuilt the team in hopes of racing once again. Kahn added junior Brian Lieberman and freshmen Brett Silverstein and Zach Gorton as teammates.\n“There were several reasons I wanted to start up the team,” Kahn said. “One, I personally wanted to represent AEPi and bring some good to our house. We are still part of that organization, and I wasn’t ready to disaffiliate just yet ... I wanted to start a team that we could pass down and become a contender in years to come. We said to ourselves ‘We are not going to let this program die,’ if we make it through the year.”\nBut with AEPi’s recent expulsion from campus, whatever hope the team had of representing its house is gone. If riders choose to compete in the race, they can still register with, or as, an independent team. \n“We are not really sure what we are going to do, so right now it is still being discussed about whether we want to go independent or not,” Silverstein said. “(Riding in the Little 500) was something that I thought would be a very cool thing because it is so unique. But I was also doing it to ride with the letters AEPi on my chest and now that we are not a fraternity anymore, it took away from it a bit.”\nNevertheless, the team is looking forward to the idea of possibly being a part of the event.\n“We might just help Michael (Retter)’s team out – become alternates, mechanics,” Kahn said. “Little 500 last year was amazing. We just really want to be part of it.”