The maintenance trucks slowly drove under the morning lights of Bill Armstrong Stadium. The drum and brushes following behind flattened the cinders; fresh white lines of chalk were laid, and the track was prepped for 2024 Little 500 Qualifications.
The 34 women’s teams signed up for quals had prepared months for the one mile, four-lap cycling relay, which determines the 33-team field for the Little 500.
With those 34 women’s teams competing — the most signed up since 2014 — and a 33-team field limit, the looming questions were “Who will win?” and “Which team will be left out?”
The damp and packed-down track conditions allowed riders to aggressively turn the corners, aiding the strong Kappa Delta (KD) team in its benchmark time of 2:57.029.
The efforts made by Taylor Lock, Alyssa Ferry, Emily Gausepohl and Kyra Ferry allowed KD to sit in pole position until the 11 a.m. wave of teams. Big hitters like Delta Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta would later topple the time, both posting results under 2:55.
Alpha Chi Omega placed second with a time of 2:49.606.
But the blazing run by Teter, finishing in 2:47.142, would prove to be untouchable.
The relay made up of Jessica DiBella, Allison Edgar, Cecilia Ball and Seneca Simon featured smooth exchanges and fast turns. Following their relay lap, DiBella, Edgar and Ball lined the final corner of the track, cheering on Simon until she finished.
The team qualified on its first of three allowed attempts, unlike 2023, where it qualified on its third and final attempt.
“This year, instead of focusing on not faulting, we focused on having fast and smooth exchanges,” Teter co-captain Jessica DiBella said. “We tried not to use the words ‘fault’ or ‘fall.’ The positive self-talk made a big difference.”
Teter’s time was an 8.6-second improvement from its 2023 attempt and would have topped last year’s pole sitters, Alpha Chi Omega, by 7.4 seconds.
Going forward, Teter hopes to “keep the positivity” and beat its 2023 team pursuit performance. The roster runs deep and will be a team to monitor moving forward.
Despite being labeled as a “dark horse” by the Little 500 network, Novus cycling easily found its way into a third-place position with 2:52.535.
But a newcomer to the women’s field this year, Alpha Fasta Bika (AFB), was the surprise of the day. It finished sixth overall with 2:56.424, ahead of teams like SKI, Kappa Delta and reigning Little 500 champions Melanzana, which placed 12th.
“It was one of those ‘wow’ moments,” AFB captain Bell Pastore said. “The result will be great to think about going forward. We’ll continue to push our limits and see what’s possible.”
Cru Cycling, SKI and Zeta Tau Alpha rounded out the top 10 at quals and secured their race day positions.
Athena was in 34th place, narrowly missing a spot in the field. It finished 1.5 seconds behind position 33. Like other teams this year, Athena made a return to the race following a long hiatus. It raced from 1999-2009 and last attempted to qualify in 2014.
The conclusion of quals marks the beginning of the Spring Series. The women’s teams will have just four days to prepare for individual time trials, scheduled for 6:30-10 p.m. Wednesday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
The track will be smoothed, groomed and chalked again at individual time trials, miss-n-outs, team pursuits — and once more shortly before that one day in April.
Here are the final qualifications results:
1. Teter
2. Alpha Chi Omega
3. Novus
4. Delta Gamma
5. Kappa Alpha Theta
6. Alpha Fasta Bika
7. Kappa Delta
8. Cru Cycling
9. Ski
10. Zeta Tau Alpha
11. CSF Cycling
12. Melanzana
13. Alpha Omicron Pi
14. Phi Mu
15. Delta Zeta
16. RideOn Cycling
17. Alpha Gamma Delta
18. Gamma Phi Beta
19. Sigma Kappa
20. Alpha Delta Pi
21. Descent
22. CHAARG
23. Bison Cycling
24. Godspeed
25. Theta Phi Alpha
26. Alpha Xi Delta
27. Chi Omega
28. Pi Beta Phi
29. Kappa Kappa Gamma
30. Sigma Delta Tau
31. Delta Phi Epsilon
32. Phi Gamma Nu
33. Alpha Epsilon Phi
