Delta Sigma Pi takes the track in 2010 with mostly new faces

Delta Sigma Pi placed third and second in the past two Little 500 races. The next logical place is first.

But with three rookies riders, they’re struggling to even know what a true pack looks like on race day.

Senior Arianna Breackner is hoping for a top finish, but with only one veteran rider, she is being realistic.

Since Breckner was a freshman, DSP has consistently moved up in the top 10. Although Breckner did not start riding until she was a sophomore, between her first
and second year on campus, DSP moved up four positions on the pole.
Their time only increased by seven seconds.

Last year, Breckner and her teammates finished in the second-place spot, with a time almost a minute slower.

“I feel like I have seen all sides that you can in Little 5,” Breckner said. “When I started training, I was on a team with five girls, a very strong five girls. They were girls who were very focused and very determined, which was great for my first year riding because they were able to introduce me to the intensity that’s needed to train for Little 5.”

The following year, the number of girls who wanted to ride began at 11 and jumped around until it finally settled on five. But last year was last year, and Breckner knows that. She has to know that, because this year, she is the lone veteran of the team.
“It’s really, really hard to understand what race day is like until you’re in the race,” Breckner said.

Inexperience is not slowing sophomore Megan DeMarco down. She said she realizes to cross the finish line, she had to start somewhere.

“I can honestly tell from the first week I was on the track, I was gosh-awful,” DeMarco said. “Every week that goes by, I’m getting so much more comfortable and so much faster, and I can stick to a lot more people’s wheels.”

Sophomore Christine Melloy might not have the experience, but the spring series results she produced gives Breckner a little foundation in the building of her race day team.

After seeing the race her freshman year, Melloy knew being on the track was the only option for her second Little 500. Melloy’s training comes from last year’s DSP riders, but she said the alumni are not putting pressure on the rookies to perform at last year’s time.

“We know we’re a top-10 program, just because we had a couple of strong finishes,” Melloy said. “Top-three would be amazing, but there is no pressure. Everyone knows we have three rookies and we’ve been working our hardest, so there isn’t like, ‘You have to do it’ kind of thing.”

Senior Lindsey Winter will take her second shot at the Little 500 after an injury sidelined her before last year’s race was a month away.

Winter, along with DSP’s two other rookie riders, is not sure what to expect on race day, but they trained to expect the unexpected.

“We want to stay with the pack and follow the pack, and when we’re out on the track practicing right now, we’re staying with the top teams,” she said. “We just want our names to be recognized with the top teams since we’ve done so well over the past years.”