Hewitt breaks away from pack in Miss ‘N Out

Cruising down the final stretch, Wing It captain Kristi Hewitt knew she could relax.

She had sprinted ahead of the competition a lap prior during what was supposed to be a rest lap before the final sprint.

“I decided to pull away on the neutral lap because I was still feeling strong, and I thought that would be a good chance for me to break away and create a gap,” Hewitt said. “I didn’t want it to come down to a sprint. My endurance is one of my strengths, so I just went with it.”

Hewitt’s tactics won her the title of Miss ‘N Out champion Saturday afternoon. Delta Upsilon’s David Richardson-Rossbach claimed the men’s title in a race that was close until the very end.

Richardson-Rossbach was “absolutely amazed” after leaving the track. During the final stretch of the race, his mind was clear as his eyes set in to tunnel vision toward the finish line, Eric Young of Cutters closing in behind him in a last-ditch effort to overtake the leader.

“All I could think about was, ‘Go as fast as I absolutely can,’” Richardson-Rossbach said. “I knew Young was behind me, so it was ‘Just stay on the bike and keep going and keep going and keep going’ until I hit the line.”

Richardson-Rossbach said the race was a closer than he thought it was going to be coming off of turn three.

“I got a little bit nervous,” he said. “I thought I had it when I first came out of turn three.
After I came out of turn four, I saw Young coming up on me, so it wasn’t really until the very end that I knew that I had it.”

Hewitt, a two-time Individual Time Trials winner and semifinalist in last year’s Miss ‘N
Out competition, said she was excited for herself and for the other competitors.

“We had a beautiful day and good competition,” she said. “I was happy with the result.”

This year’s Miss ‘N Outs were full of surprises and upsets, as many of last year’s competitors fell out of the competition, including Clayton Feldman of Cutters and Nick
Sovinski of Phi Delta Theta, last year’s second- and third-place finishers, respectively.

In the women’s bracket, Teter’s Jackie Moeller, last year’s fifth-place finisher, was also knocked off prior to the finals.

Zachary Trogdon, a Gray Goat Cycling rookie who advanced as far as the semifinals, said the track was pretty well-suited for the competition.

“It was fast today, but it was a little loose on the turns,” Trogdon said. “It could have been a little more wet on the turns, but other than that, it was pretty fast.”

Trogdon said the race intensity varies depending on the tactics the frontrunners utilize.

“It depends on the speed,” he said. “You just have to keep your wits about you. You just don’t want to be that guy that causes the accident. You just have to keep your head on your shoulders, make a move when you can and keep your eyes open.”