Van Kooten, Sharp take Miss ’N Out titles

The Winners

Teter junior rider Caitlin Van Kooten did not wake up Saturday morning with only the Little 500’s spring series event Miss ’N Out on her mind. First, she had to conquer her E370 exam.

But not even expending brain power for Statistical Analysis for Business and Economics could stop Van Kooten’s back tire from crossing the finish line first, marking the second Spring Series Event in a row the Teter junior rider has won. After finishing second last week in Individual Team Trials, Phi Delta Theta junior rider Steve Sharp won Miss ‘N Out on the men’s side.

Supposed to ride in the first heat of the day, Van Kooten’s start time was pushed back an hour and forty minutes to work around her test. But what mattered more was the position she got on the track. Finishing first in ITT left Van Kooten with the inside position for her heat.

“Strategically, it’s the best place to be,” Van Kooten said. “You just have to look over to your right and make sure nobody comes over you on that side, because you know your inside is covered, because nobody can get between you and the gutter.”

Van Kooten’s starting position also gave her a shorter distance around the track, which helped her save energy.

“The thing you can do is go really hard in the corners,” she said. “You’re working hard, but they’re working even harder to go further out to get around you.”

Van Kooten said the inside position is not all advantages. That particular spot exposes the rider to the most amount of wind with nobody to draft.

But Van Kooten did not need a tire to follow. She crossed the finish line with her back straight and Teter fans cheering in the background.

Sharp, who led the entire final lap, had his teammate, senior Baxter Burnworth, on his wheel in the beginning. But when Sharp’s back wheel crossed the finish line, nobody was riding his wheel closely.

Burnworth and Sharp were accompanied in the final round by senior teammate Nick Sovinski, making half of the final heat brothers of Phi Delta Theta.

“It just shows our strength and we’re out here to win,” Sharp said.

Winning Miss ’N Out is not the highlight of Sharp’s spring semester, though. That, he said, is hopefully still to come.

“Winning is cool, but it doesn’t matter,” Sharp said. “The only thing that matters is the race.”

The Fourth Man Out

Sophomore Andrew Morrow’s goals for this season hang above his locker in Sigma Chi’s bike room. On that list was one far-reaching goal: Make it to the final round of Miss ’N Out.

After being knocked out during just the second lap of the first round of Miss ’N Out in 2009, Morrow’s training would need to keep him competitive with the top riders in the field.

His leg strength did more than that. For the typically-distance rider, Morrow spent a whole lap of the semifinal heat a bike’s length in front of the pack, riding a way he never does: sprinting.

“That was a real unusual race for me,” Morrow said. “I kind of got boxed in on the inside, and I was scared for a while. I thought I was going to get boxed in too much and I’d miss out.”

Morrow, who said he had luck on his side all day after two close calls in earlier heats, had luck on his side once again. Drafting two riders in the second-to-last lap, Morrow decided his legs were rested enough to set his strategy into place. At just the right second, Morrow pulled to the outside and pumped his legs, propelling his bike like a Lamborghini on a clogged highway.

“They had enough snap in them. I just kept on going,” Morrow said about his legs. “I caught a second wind, and it felt good, so I just kept on pushing.”

With Cutters rider Eric Young eliminated with a broken chain and Phi Kappa Psi’s Dan Brown knocked out after the second round, Morrow had an opportunity to do well. He kept telling himself to stay focused and stick to his routine.

But as one of four riders remaining in the final heat, Morrow’s luck ran out.

“The guy got me on turn three, and coming around turn four I just couldn’t hold on,” he said. “I was pretty ticked off, because I just couldn’t catch his wheel. I would have been top three ... I just had to hold on for one more guy, and I couldn’t do it.

“Gosh, I was one lap away. It was one wheel. I guess when you’re riding, one wheel can separate you from third and fourth.”