Sigma Nu knocks Cutters off top spot

For seven hours of Saturday’s Little 500 Qualifications, the Cutters stood alone at the top of the pole — uncontested.

Then Sigma Nu showed up.

Last season, the Cutters took the pole and won Little 500 by .01 of a second. Their four-straight Little 500 victories almost crowned them the automatic pole leader this year.

But the team that finished eighth in last year’s race was done taking a back seat.
With a time of 2:25.91, SNU members topped the Cutters’ 2:26.46 to chants from their brothers.

“I know that we were kind of off the radar as far as the cycling community in Bloomington goes, but we’re definitely a strong team,” senior and SNU captain Joel Newman said.

A tweet from Eric Young was the first response from the Cutters.

“... crazy! SNU better be ready to get passed before turn 1,” Young tweeted.

“We’re going to be the trash talk around the playground,” Newman said. “We just want to have a good race.”

During the Cutters’ 8:20 a.m. qualifications attempt, the track was slow and loose. A rider from a competing team had already slid out on a turn.

Sophomore SNU rider Brice Brookshire said the team had practiced sitting on the bike around loose turns to help with tough track conditions.

By the time SNU qualified at 3:25 p.m., the track was faster and the cinders were more compact.

SNU’s highest qualification in the last 10 years was in 2004 when it took second. It poled 21st in 2010, but this year it’ll start race day leading the pack.

“We’re just as fast as anybody,” Brookshire said. “We all expected to go in there and win.”