Brother and sister compete at Bill Armstrong Stadium in different ways

Growing up only five months apart, Mindi and Rich Balchan have always been close, even though they aren’t biological siblings.

As kids they played every sport they could, and while at Carmel High School, they competed on the soccer pitch.

They both chose to attend IU, but once they set foot on campus they chose different paths: Mindi, a sorority and Rich, IU athletics.

But it only took a semester for both their paths to cross at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
While Mindi pedals her Schwinn bicycle around the cinder track of Bill Armstrong Stadium, she stays toward the inside lane, and only a cement buffer stands between her and more than 100 yards of green grass.

To most people that grass is just that — a field in the middle of the complex that contains America’s Greatest College Weekend’s race.

But to Mindi that field is where she watches her brother run in the fall, kicking a soccer ball to his Hoosier teammates during the men’s soccer team’s home games.

Rich said seeing his sister and him in the same vicinity is rare. Between training, competing and separate groups of friends, they spend little free time together, even though they live only two minutes apart. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t close.

“Whenever we see each other, it’s like no time has passed between the last time we saw each other,” Mindi said. “Sometimes girls will make jokes like ‘Oh, we should have the whole soccer team over for dinner because you have the hook-up.’”

During the fall semester, Mindi spent hours before her brother’s games tailgating with the soccer players’ parents, watching the team play and even driving to and from North Carolina to watch the team’s final game of the season during Thanksgiving break.

But as Little 500 creeps closer, Rich has spent his fair share of time around the Little 500 track.

Sitting in the stands that look over the pitch he’s accustomed to playing on, Rich took in the sights of Miss ’N Out.

As Mindi rounded the track during the third round of the event, Rich couldn’t sit and passively watch his sister pedal past. He rose to his feet as it seemed apparent Mindi’s rear bike tire might be the last to cross the finish line.

With his hands behind his head, Rich was silent until the announcer called out that rider 37 had been eliminated. Luckily, Mindi wore number 8.

Unfortunately, Mindi couldn’t hold on any longer and was eliminated the next lap.

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About a year ago, Mindi hopped on a Little 500 bike after a few of her Alpha Gamma Delta Cycling teammates had complications that left them unable to race. On a whim, Mindi decided to complete her rookie hours, thinking one year she might want to race in Little 500. But at that time, she was training for a different race: the Little 50.

Mindi’s mom, Patricia, still remembers the phone call from her daughter telling her parents to come watch her at Qualifications.

“We know soccer but we know nothing about this,” Patricia said. “We came down to quals and she’s on a bike and she’s riding.”

The sight of Mindi riding a bike was as much of a shock to Mindi’s dad as it was to her mom.

“As a child, she didn’t really like riding bicycles,” Daryl Balchan said. “I doubt if she put four miles on the bicycles we bought her when she grew up.”

Both of Mindi’s parents were also surprised that their only daughter joined a sorority; they describe her as an intense student who takes her studies extremely seriously. Daryl said he is glad Mindi has the balance of academics, athletics and social activities.
But Mindi still knows where her priorities are.

“If I have to go on a ride and I have a test, then I guess I just won’t be sleeping a lot that night because I just have to get it all done,” she said.

As for her brother, Mindi is content to hang around Rich and his teammates away from her track and his pitch.