For the second straight year, 13 was the lucky number in the 35th running of the women’s Little 500, as the team that qualified 13th won the race. For the second straight year, that team was Melanzana Cycling.
“It’s amazing, I can’t believe it,” all four riders said simultaneously after the race.
The hour long plus rain delay was worth the wait for the last year’s champions to successfully defend their title.
The weather all week was spotty heading into Friday’s race and the “World’s Greatest College Weekend,” and there definitely was a doubt that Melazana would hoist the Borg-Warner Trophy after 100 laps around the cinder track at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
Teter, the team that qualified second and wore the white jerseys after winning the Spring Series, held as much as a 17 second lead in the second half of the race but were eventually caught by the team wearing the yellow jerseys.
The assemblance of seniors Abby Green, Grace Washburn, Lauren Etnyre and freshman Nora Abdelkader won the team’s second Little 500 in as many years, finishing the race in 1:12:23, over three minutes faster than the time they had after 25 miles last year. Green was the only returning rider that won last year’s race, and now has been a part of both Melenazana teams that have ever won the Little 500
A race that didn’t see any cautions did see a fair number of crashes, with the first one coming within the first ten laps. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Theta Phi Alpha went down around turn one, putting them both nearly a full lap down. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Theta Phi Alpha qualified eighth and tenth, respectively. Kappa Kappa Gamma got back to the front of the pack by lap 35 as the pace significantly slowed down but ultimately finished ninth.
It didn’t take until lap 25 for Melanzana and Teter to complete their first exchanges. Each team had to exchange at least five times during the course of the 100 lap race.
By the halfway point of the race, only nine teams remained on the lead lap, with Teter pushing ahead to give itself a double-digit second lead. Teter used short sets with its riders to get a commanding lead as the second half of the race started.
The lead was as much as 17 seconds, but the chasing pack led by Melanzana slowly dwindled the deficit as the race got the three-quarter point. After 75 laps, Teter exchanged, and the lead was just two seconds with Delta Gamma, Melanzana and Alpha Chi Omega all within touching distance.
The Melanzana riders were unsure if Teter would hold onto the lead, but even after exchanging on lap 98, it had a lead it would for sure hold onto.
Delta Gamma took the lead with 15 laps to go after miscommunication on an exchange from Alpha Chi Omega cost them nearly ten seconds, a deficit they were unable to make up. Delta Gamma planned on exchanging late on, but CSF Cycling, the team two pits ahead of them, were exchanging as well, and the angle wasn’t there for DG, so the rider who planned on exchanging had to go another lap.
Before that, an Alpha Chi Omega rider slowed down on the way to the pit box, but the coach waved her around for another lap. It was able to snag the final spot on the podium, finishing third less than two-tenths of a seconds ahead of Delta Gamma. Both those teams finished about half a minute behind Melanzana.
Melanzana again played it safe during qualifications, finishing 18 seconds behind Alpha Chi Omega, but that didn’t end up playing any real significance in the race, as they made that deficit up within the first ten laps. In the end, Washburn crossed the finish line after hopping on the bike with two laps to go. Washburn was part of Melanzana last year, but she was deemed ineligible to race after transferring from Phi Mu, which she raced for two years ago.
The fans created plenty of noise after waiting through the rain, many in panchos and raincoats, to witness the first repeat champion since 2018, when Kappa Alpha Theta successfully repeated.
“This is my family,” Green said after the race. That family will be able to call themselves champions for the next 364 days.
