Phi Delta Theta fraternity members know these numbers well. They are the fraternity’s finishing places in the Little 500 for the past five years. An admirable record, but one that heaps on the pressure this year for one particular podium spot.
Gamma Phi Beta also has an interesting Little 500 history. For the past 35 years, the sorority has alternated back and forth between top-20 and top-10 finishes.
This year, the sorority members said they’re working for something better, and it’s not an unreachable goal. Their team finished second in qualifications this year, and it’s the first time since the sorority’s first-place finish in 1995 that it finished better than sixth.
But the riders haven’t done it without help.
Behind the scenes, several people and organizations lend support to the bike teams. One of them in particular, Campus Cooks, has taken the athletes’ ?nutrition into its hands.
In 2004, Bill Reeder founded a company, Campus Cooks, to place professional chefs inside greek chapters. He had a bad experience with his own fraternity food service in college and wanted to change that for others.
Seven IU chapters, including Phi Delta Theta and Gamma Phi Beta, have Campus Cooks chefs in their kitchens. The chefs go through a recruiting system and are placed in specific houses based on their personalities.
“Our chefs really become a part of the house,” said Christine Domino, the marketing and communications specialist for Campus Cooks. “And our company, we really want each chapter to be the best that they can be.”
Campus Cooks donates money to the houses’ philanthropies and has taken steps in the past three years to increase its involvement in greek Little 500 teams.
Campus Cooks has supplied teams with food, along with jackets and jerseys the teams continue to use for a few years after receiving them.
“We are, yes, a kitchen management and food company, but we’re much more than that,” Domino said.
Domino said she has enjoyed working with the more than 100 chapters Campus Cooks serves across the country. Campus Cooks cares about what students are doing, she said, and that’s why it allocates money to help them succeed.
“I feel rewarded that I’m able to give them what they need to succeed for training purposes for Little Five,” she said.
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It’s a dreary Tuesday evening, and Phi Delt has been forced to end its training session at the track prematurely because of threatening thunderstorms.
The training room inside Phi Delt’s “castle” is in high contrast to the bleak landscape outdoors. Bright blue paint covers the walls, and the small room holds endless evidence of avid preparation with water bottles, T-shirts and ?towels sprawled about the space.
Phi Delt team captain Ryan Romenesko said the team’s relationship with Campus Cooks is a two-way street. In exchange for putting Campus Cooks’ logo on its jerseys, the team got race day bibs, groceries during its week of training in Florida and a hearty meal before ?qualifications.
The pre-qualifications meal was intended for the bikers but instead doubled up as a Founder’s Day meal, so the whole house was fed.
Andrew Bredemeyer is the chef in Phi Delt this semester, and he knows what kind of food the team needs to consume in preparation for the race.
On nights when fried food overtakes the menu, he makes the bikers healthy alternatives, such as salads. He has a whole race week menu planned that is filled with protein, carbohydrates and “super foods.”
Rob Lee, a senior rider, said he always has access to what he needs before, during and after rides, such as milk for recovering and granola bars to take with him on weekend rides. Carbs before rides, protein after.
“It’s definitely a big part of it,” Lee said. “You are what you eat, and you ride how you eat, too.”
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While Phi Delt cut its practice short, Gamma Phi was just about to begin. Its ?training room is full of space, with mirrors and lights on the walls and the bikes pushed to one side. Three of the cyclists, Rachel Krauss, Lindsey Givin and Captain Allison Eschbach, sit cross-legged on the floor. A countdown calendar hangs on the wall next to a window.
“It’s dwindling down,” they say.
But they’re enjoying the time they have together to get the bulk of training finished.
“It’s fun to all be together,” Eschbach said.
“Aw, we’re sisters,” the women chorused in high-pitched voices, mocking the cliché.
The Gamma Phi bike team is especially appreciative of the financial help they’ve received from Campus Cooks, which included a gift card for groceries during spring break. Eschbach and Krauss have both had executive positions within the chapter, so they know what the budget allocation looks like.
“It’s definitely important that we have sponsors,” ?Eschbach said.
Otherwise, the money would have been taken out of their underwhelming bike team budget.
Eschbach and Givin were in Bloomington during spring break. They were left with an abundance of leftover food, including a jumbo bag of cheese cubes.
“We all looked at it and were like, this is disgusting, there’s no way we’re gonna eat all this,” she said. “We ate it all. Like very easily, we ate it all.”
Krauss said she ate up to 10 eggs a day in addition to normal meals and snacks when she was in Bloomington during last year’s spring break.
The Campus Cook chef for Gamma Phi is Aaron Nowlin, who is in his fourth year with the company. He is also preparing a special pre-race meal for his team: a pasta bar with grilled chicken and roasted mixed vegetables.
“I know a long race like that, if you eat bad food, it’s gonna catch up with you,” he said.
The Campus Cooks kitchen staff finds amusement in the cyclists’ training attire.
“They’ve giggled a lot, snickered because we’re constantly dressed like this,” Eschbach said.
The girls snickered.
“And constantly in the kitchen,” Krauss said.
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Though Campus Cooks has donated a wealth of food and finances, the cyclists are quick to mention other ?people or companies who have been generous.
For about the past decade, Carlton Arms of Magnolia Valley has provided the Phi Delt team with a condo during its week of training in Florida.
For Gamma Phi, extra support comes from a former Gamma Phi Little 500 cyclist, Sonja Arnesen. Arnesen coaches the team during spring break and visits during the race. The cyclists said she’s a hotline for advice.
Both teams’ veteran players are backbones for team improvement, and the rookies know it. Sophomores Luke Ahern and Givin are rookie riders for Phi Delt and Gamma Phi, respectively. They praise their teammates’ hard work and cite them as key ?motivators.
“It’s really these guys, you know,” Ahern said of Romenesko and Lee. “This is why I bike, is because these guys represent our house so strong.”
Ahern continued, “And they represent our bike team so damn strong that it’s like, you know when you train with them, you train with the best.”
Jenna Norgaard is a three-year veteran of the Gamma Phi team, and Eschbach, Krauss and Givin all say she has been an inspiration for them to work diligently. It’s a combination of Norgaard, Arnesen and sponsors, such as Campus Cooks, that has built the Gamma Phi program to what it is this year, along with rigorous training.
Hours of riding and endless support have been factors in how these cyclists said they feel about their teams as they prepare to race — strong, fast, ?confident.
And hungry.
