More burning questions...
Greg and I will have race previews in the paper tomorrow, but in the meantime here are some more burning questions with ...
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Greg and I will have race previews in the paper tomorrow, but in the meantime here are some more burning questions with ...
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s Sunday morning and the Phi Kappa Psi Little 500 team is gathered near the bike room in its fraternity house. Fresh off a second-place finish in Team Pursuit the night before, the team is pulling out its uniforms and preparing for a light ride through town. Some members are just coming back from church, while others look like they just woke up.Today, they will ride what is called the Sample route, roughly a 20-mile ride through the north end of Bloomington.“Today is kind of a recovery,” junior rider Dan Brown said. “We’re not going to be doing any big, hard outbursts. We’re just letting our bodies rest and repair after the all the months of training we’ve put in.”Today’s 20-mile ride is light compared to the higher-intensity 40-50 mile routes the team takes in the months preceding the Little 500 season. “Preseason we do longer rides to build muscle and lung capacity, and then when the track opens it’s more bursts to simulate the race conditions,” Brown said. Phi Kappa Psi alumni coach Jim Kaese, who lives in San Diego, sends the riders interval workouts to follow throughout the year. The riders typically go for rides six days a week, taking Sundays off. The long distance between them and their coach, however, makes it the riders’ responsibility to keep up with the training.“You can have a coach give you stuff to do and still not have people who actually do it,” senior David Schweer said. “Especially since our coach isn’t here, there’s nobody watching us. Either we do it or we don’t do it. You have to have a program that is willing to make the sacrifices.”The team credits Kaese, whom they call a “master of training and nutrition,” with the recent success of the fraternity. Phi Kappa Psi, a seven-time Little 500 champion, is a traditional powerhouse, but as recently as 2003, the team qualified in 33rd place.In the team’s bike room, small white cut-outs with black numbers progress in a line near the ceiling of the room. Each cut-out marks the team’s qualifying position that year. Starting in 2002, the numbers go 22, 33, 7, 1, 2, 1. This year, the team qualified third.“That’s kind of like where we used to be and where we are now,” senior Mike Segal said.With the race less than a week away, this ride will be one of the last the team takes before the race. The team will train on the track during the week leading up to the race.After poor weather limited training opportunities for many teams, the Phi Kappa Psi riders are excited to ride in the warm, sunny weather. Today, they are riding with six riders – Segal, Schweer, Brown, freshman Adam Mercer, sophomore Evan Burns and alum Brian Adams.The Sample route is mostly back roads, and it reaches as far as 10 miles north of campus, with a nice mix of hills, curves and straight-aways. The Phi Kappa Psi riders are on road bikes today, which they say are a bit more comfortable than the standard Little 500 bikes. They stay together in a pack for most of the ride, but narrow into a straight line on several occasions. As the sun beats down on the riders in the middle of one of the back roads, they unzip their uniform jackets. They pedal down the road while their green and white jackets rush back and forth in the wind.It is the perfect day for a light ride.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last year’s men’s Little 500 came down to a thrilling sprint to the finish between five teams. While top riders such as Cutters’ Alex Bishop, Dodds House’s Chris Chartier and Phi Kappa Psi’s Erik Styacich have moved on, this year’s race offers plenty of individual talent. Here are three riders to keep an eye on: The VeteranIt should come as no surprise that Black Key Bulls junior Isaac Neff is one of the top Little 500 riders this year. He started working at a bike shop when he was 12 years old and has been around the sport ever since.Neff’s hard work paid off after he rode in roughly 65 road races during the summer. He won the Individual Time Trials and Miss-N-Out this spring.Neff put in the time and the effort and comes into this year’s race with an improved physical and mental focus from previous years.“I think I have better overall fitness and just a better understanding of how things work,” Neff said. “I think I’m mentally in better shape.”Neff is the leader of a young but talented Black Key Bulls team. Of the team’s five potential riders, four are rookies. “He really brings you under his wing and helps you develop,” Black Key Bulls junior Valentin Todorow said. “He likes to have fun, but he’s serious and he doesn’t play around. That’s what you need to win.”Neff hopes his confidence and experience can rub off on his teammates. “You have to take the track with confidence and just know that the best you can be is good enough,” he said. “You have to know that you can get the next wheel or close the gap or get the good position.”The BreakthroughSophomore Nick Sovinski wants to help restore the Phi Delta Theta name. This is Phi Delta Theta’s second year back in the Little 500 after a two-year absence beginning in 2005. Its charter was suspended by its international fraternity headquarters in October 2004 for alleged hazing and alcohol incidents.After a second-place showing at ITTs and a third-place finish in Miss-N-Out, Sovinski is well on his way to accomplishing his goal.“I’ve been doing a lot better, but I’m not in it for the recognition,” he said. “I just want to make the Phi Delt name better and more recognizable and it takes more than just one guy to do that.”Sovinski is a second-year rider who is ready to see his breakthrough spring performance translate into race-day success. He said his mountain biking background has given him good stamina but he has improved his sprinting ability during this off season.“I have good endurance and I can sit in with the pack and ride, but my training has really helped with my explosiveness,” he said. Sovinski’s teammates said he has settled down a bit in his second year.“I think he’s a little more relaxed this year than last year,” Phi Delta Theta sophomore Brice Fox said. “Last year was his first Little 500 and I think this year he’s just having more fun and I think that’s really helped him.”Sovinski said he appreciates the opportunity that his older teammates have given him.“The older guys went through a lot, especially after being kicked off campus,” he said. “They rode for LiSiHi, a Little 500 team that is now disbanded, when they couldn’t wear our letters and have graduated now, but they were still really determined to pass on our name to new guys like me.”The Up-and-ComerJunior Clayton Feldman did not even own a bike his freshman year. After spending most of the year playing on the ultimate-frisbee team, he decided to buy a bike and start riding. He started talking to some teams last year and by the middle of his sophomore year he was on the Cutters squad. He admits that being on a team with so much history was nerve-wracking at first.“It was intimidating,” he said. “There were so many riders on the team, and there still are now, that are just studs. I was just thinking to myself, ‘Can I be as good as these guys?’”This year, the rookie has proven he belongs. He posted a fifth-place showing at ITTs and finished second in Miss-N-Out.Feldman said his results were surprising, even to him, especially after a case of mononucleosis limited his training during winter break. “I’m not the fastest and I’m not the strongest,” he said. “I just went out there and threw down and let whatever happened happen.”In his second year – he trained in 2007 but did not ride in the race – he has stepped up his training in 2008.“Clayton is very interested and involved in our training program,” Cutters coach Jim Kirkham said. “He gives a lot of input and feedback.”The Cutters return two senior riders – Sasha Land and Paul Sigfusson – from last year’s championship team. Feldman said Land and Sigfusson, along with senior Erik Hamilton, have helped speed up his learning curve.“I tend to have a big mouth, but I just try to listen,” Feldman said. “When you have people who know and who have been there before, you just have to keep your mouth shut and let them tell you what’s happening.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After the Phi Kappa Tau riders completed a successful qualification run, they couldn’t hide the excitement on their faces. Not only had they not qualified for the Little 500 since 1992, but their time of 2:28.92 left them in 10th place. As three of the riders gathered together on the infield of the track, they struggled to remember the last time they had qualified for the race. One rider said it was the first time this millennium, which is somewhat true. Another rider said it was 20 years, which is not true. The real answer lies somewhere in between. Phi Kappa Tau will wear its letters in the Little 500 for the first time in 15 years.“It’s huge for us,” sophomore rider Nick Schatko said. “There are so many other fraternities that we have to compete against, and to know that we can compete at the same level as the other fraternities is really big for us.”With a declining membership and growing debt, Phi Kappa Tau lost its charter several times during the last 40 years. In 2003, the fraternity regained its charter and moved into its current location off-campus. “It’s a big positive step for us,” senior rider Adam Whitten said of qualifying for the race. “We’ve had a lot of setbacks – like not getting a house on campus – but to be in the race is a big step forward. It’s a big brotherhood event and that’s what we are based upon, is our brotherhood.”For Phi Kappa Tau, a fraternity looking to establish its name within the greek community at IU, fielding a Little 500 team is essential to the process.“It’s an accomplishment for us, not even just in the athletic sense for the riders,” senior Phi Kappa Tau member Barry Kaufman said. “It’s just a good thing for our house and it’s good for us to publicly show that we are committed to being a part of the greek community. It has always been a goal of ours as a fraternity to field a Little 500 team.”Last year, Phi Kappa Tau missed qualifying by two seconds, leaving the riders motivated to do the training necessary to make the race.“This year, we had a sense of urgency in trying to work together for a common cause,” Schatko said. “We know that there have been other guys in the past who wanted to get in the race and that has just made us work harder.”Even after all its training, the team was surprised it placed 10th in qualifications.“To go from not qualifying to qualifying top 10 puts us in a whole new level,” junior rider Jimmy Hodges said. “We never expected to qualify this well. We trained hard, but it surpassed our wildest dreams to qualify this high.”As anticipated with a team qualifying for the first time in 15 years, the race-day expectations were tempered before qualifications. But a top 10 qualifying time leaves Phi Kappa Tau with loftier goals for the race.“It definitely changes our goals,” Schatko said. “Instead of just getting in the race, we want to finish at the end. We want to make sure our efforts weren’t wasted. Everyone expects more of us after Quals and we want to place and get a trophy.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nancy Macklin has a black and white photo of the old Little 500 stadium on 10th Street, dated April 26, 1980. She can point to the spot near the first turn where she and her medical staff set up a tent during her first Little 500 in 1973. Macklin, now the director of nursing at the IU Health Center, has not missed a race in 35 years, but can still recall her first one like it was yesterday.“I’ll never forget, when the race started, we gathered near turn one,” she said. “Then the riders came around after their parade laps. When they come to the corners, they all just tilt at a 45-degree angle. I think my heart skipped a beat. I thought they all were going to die. I had never seen such a sight in my life.”This year will be Macklin’s 36th time providing race-day medical care for the riders. The IU Health Center now staffs four to eight nurses for the men’s and women’s races. They are joined by at least one orthopedic surgeon and four family practice physicians or nurse practitioners. “We are so grateful to have someone with so much experience,” said Little 500 Race Director Matt Ewing. “To have the IU Health Center, and more specifically Nancy Macklin, with us at the race has been phenomenal.”Macklin said she and her staff provide basic wound care for the riders, while the Bloomington Ambulance Service, which also staffs the race, treats more serious injuries, such as potential spinal or head injuries.Student Emergency Medical Technicians now monitor track practices, but Macklin said there used to be no medical presence during practices at the old stadium.“If they got hurt, the riders would come walking up the hill from where the business school is now,” she said. “We had the craziest protocol, because we had an infirmary upstairs. If they were OK to walk, the first thing we’d do is send them to take a shower upstairs, because they’d be covered in the black soot and cinders from the track.”The old 10th Street stadium stood where the current Arboretum is today, and was the site of the racing scenes from the film “Breaking Away.”Macklin said members of the Health Center staff were at the track for three days during the filming in case any of the actors got hurt. One of the days there was an accident scene with a nurse, but that day Macklin was called for jury duty.“If you blink you miss it, but way down there is a tiny nurse,” she said. “It could have been me.”The race has since moved from the 10th Street stadium to Bill Armstrong Stadium. Just as the venue has changed, the nature of the race has changed as well. Macklin said the quality of the riders’ training has made her job easier.“The riders were not as trained,” she said. “The equipment was a lot more poor, so there were so many more accidents and injuries. Races are so much safer now due to all the conditioning and training.”As the director of nursing for the IU Health Center, Macklin is the chief administrator for the nursing department. She is also a nurse practitioner and sees patients for a half a day each week and fills in for other nurses whenever necessary. But each year, she still looks forward to the unique opportunity to work the Little 500. “It still has that festival atmosphere,” she said. “It’s still a thrill to sing the national anthem and see the parachuters come down in the beginning. Then you just hold your breath and say a prayer and hope everything is going to go OK.”
There is only a week left before the Little 500 and there is probably a lot that you, the loyal reader, are dying to know. This week Greg and I will provide you with interviews from as many riders as we can. Each day we will post a few of the Q-and-As in what we'll tenatively call "Burning Questions". I just came up with the name and it's probably pretty corny, so I'm open to suggestions. Without further adieu here is the first installment of Burning Questions with...
Team Pursuit is set for Saturday at 4 p.m. at Bill Armstrong Stadium. We have a good idea of the strong individual riders after ITTs and Miss-N-Out. Now we get a preview of what teams could be strong on race day. Team pursuit tests the depth of each team and could be a good indication of teams that will make noise in the race. Here is a link to the team pairings for Saturday and here is a link to the overall spring series standings heading into team pursuit.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Teter senior Sarah Rieke could not have dreamt of a better scenario for Saturday’s Miss-N-Out. Not only did she win her second consecutive Miss-N-Out title, but she did so with three teammates by her side in the final heat.“To have four girls in the final – I won’t lie, I got back and had some tears,” Rieke said after the race at Bill Armstrong Stadium. “I am just really living the dream right now, having four wonderful girls going into race day. There is absolutely nothing more I can ask for going into race day.”Rieke sprinted past senior teammate Erin Hetzel in the final lap to the finish. “Once we got to the point where I knew it was me and Erin – my favorite spot to sprint out of is turn two – I just let loose and got enough gap to finish it off,” Rieke said.Riders were paired into groups based on their Individual Time Trial performances. After each lap the groups finished, a rider was eliminated from competition. The top riders of each heat moved on to the next round until a champion was named. Hetzel finished in second place, while Delta Gamma senior Jessica Lander took third place. “Anything after getting to the finals was just icing on the cake,” Hetzel said of her second-place finish. “I’m a rookie and I just came out here and listened to Sarah.”Teter junior Jackie Moeller and senior Sydney Hatten joined Rieke and Hetzel in the final heat of six riders. Kappa Delta sophomore Jenna Cerone was the other finalist.On the men’s side, Black Key Bulls junior Isaac Neff won his second consecutive spring series event after winning the Individual Time Trials on Wednesday. Neff said he felt sick throughout most of the day, but he was still able to outlast the field. “I kind of rode like I felt strong, but I was really hurting,” he said. “I didn’t feel too bad on the bike, but between heats I was really hurting.”Neff led the final sprint the whole way and was able to hold off Cutters junior Clayton Feldman, who finished second, and Phi Delta Theta sophomore Nick Sovinski, who placed third.“There was a tailwind on the backside today, which is kind of unusual,” Neff said. “With that tailwind, it made it a lot easier to sprint. That helped me a lot because I’m not super good at acceleration, so I could just keep it real fast.”The event lasted most of the day and was a true test of endurance for the riders.“It makes for a long day because as soon as you’re off, you have to jump on another bike and keep spinning to get your legs warm all day,” Delta Sigma Pi senior Tyler George said. “At some point it kind of wears down on you and makes it a little tiring.” George joined the top three finishers in the final heat, along with Phi Delta Theta junior Matt Kain and Sigma Alpha Mu sophomore Stephen Quay. Sovinski turned in an impressive third-place performance after finishing second in the ITTs in the first spring series event. “It felt great,” Sovinski said. “Last year I was out real early and this year I just had a strategy the whole time and it worked for me until the end. It felt really good to be in that final three because those other guys are great riders.”
Teter senior Sarah Rieke could not have dreamt of a better scenario for Saturday’s Miss-N-Out. Not only did she win her second consecutive Miss-N-Out title, but she did so with three teammates by her side in the final heat.\n“To have four girls in the final – I won’t lie, I got back and had some tears,” Rieke said after the race at Bill Armstrong Stadium. “I am just really living the dream right now, having four wonderful girls going into race day. There is absolutely nothing more I can ask for going into race day.”\nRieke sprinted past senior teammate Erin Hetzel in the final lap to the finish. \n“Once we got to the point where I knew it was me and Erin – my favorite spot to sprint out of is turn two – I just let loose and got enough gap to finish it off,” Rieke said.\nRiders were paired into groups based on their Individual Time Trial performances. After each lap the groups finished, a rider was eliminated from competition. The top riders of each heat moved on to the next round until a champion was named. \nHetzel finished in second place, while Delta Gamma senior Jessica Lander took \nthird place. \n“Anything after getting to the finals was just icing on the cake,” Hetzel said of her second-place finish. “I’m a rookie and I just came out here and listened to Sarah.”\nTeter junior Jackie Moeller and senior Sydney Hatten joined Rieke and Hetzel in the final heat of six riders. Kappa Delta sophomore Jenna Cerone was the other finalist.\nOn the men’s side, Black Key Bulls junior Isaac Neff won his second consecutive spring series event after winning the Individual Time Trials on Wednesday. Neff said he felt sick throughout most of the day, but he was still able to outlast the field. \n“I kind of rode like I felt strong, but I was really hurting,” he said. “I didn’t feel too bad on the bike, but between heats I was really hurting.”\nNeff led the final sprint the whole way and was able to hold off Cutters junior Clayton Feldman, who finished second, and Phi Delta Theta sophomore Nick Sovinski, who placed third.\n“There was a tailwind on the backside today, which is kind of unusual,” Neff said. “With that tailwind, it made it a lot easier to sprint. That helped me a lot because I’m not super good at acceleration, so I could just keep it real fast.”\nThe event lasted most of the day and was a true test of endurance for the riders.\n“It makes for a long day because as soon as you’re off, you have to jump on another bike and keep spinning to get your legs warm all day,” Delta Sigma Pi senior Tyler George said. “At some point it kind of wears down on you and makes it a little tiring.” \nGeorge joined the top three finishers in the final heat, along with Phi Delta Theta junior Matt Kain and Sigma Alpha Mu sophomore Stephen Quay. \nSovinski turned in an impressive third-place performance after finishing second in the ITTs in the first spring series event. \n“It felt great,” Sovinski said. “Last year I was out real early and this year I just had a strategy the whole time and it worked for me until the end. It felt really good to be in that final three because those other guys are great riders.”
Hey everyone. I just got back from the track after a very competitive day of racing. After all was said and done, Isaac Neff of Black Key Bulls won for the men and Sarah Rieke of Teter successfully defended her Miss-N-Out crown from last year.
With Little 500 Rookie Week underway, icy conditions delayed what would have been the first-year riders’ first time on the track at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nOn Monday rookie riders watched a video on the history and tradition of the Little 500 and took a written test on the rules. Tuesday was supposed to be the first day on the track, but race officials decided to cancel the day’s events. \n“Speaking with the head maintenance guys at the track, we just determined that it wasn’t really possible to be out on the track in the freezing rain,” Little 500 Race Director Matt Ewing said. “We tried to roll the track but we couldn’t get it in enough shape to ride on.”\nRookie Week is an eight-day training period for first-year riders, designed to educate riders on race rules, racing technique and track safety. Rookie Week started on Monday Feb. 11 and runs through Feb. 20. \nWhile Ewing said the cancellation of Tuesday’s events was not ideal, he is still confident that the Little 500 schedule of events will remain the same and all Rookie Week events will be completed by Feb. 21, when the track opens to non-rookie riders. \n“The forecast is supposed to warm up in the next few days, so if we can get out on the track by Thursday the schedule should be alright,” he said. “If we’re on the track on Thursday and Friday of this week, and then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, it will still be a full week for the rookie riders.”\nThe IU Student Foundation Riders Council, a group of experienced riders, coordinate Rookie Week by teaching rookie riders about the fundamentals of the race.\nRiders Council member and Phi Kappa Psi rider Mike Segal said one benefit of Rookie Week is the ability to mix indoor and outdoor activities. Segal said the Metz Lounge under the track is available to show past race videos to the rookies. However on Tuesday, the weather would not even allow for that.\n“The parking lot by the track all the way down the stairs to the Metz Lounge was just full of ice,” Segal said. \nWomen’s Riders Council president and Alpha Chi Omega rider Nattie Deinlein also said she is confident they will be able to complete the week’s activities, but she also stressed that the Riders Council will be able to help the rookies throughout the Little 500 season.\n“The Riders Council maintains our presence on the track throughout the season,” she said. “Our goal is to make sure that the rookies still feel comfortable as the season progresses. We still feel that the rookies will be more than competent.”
Junior Alpha Tau Omega member Steve Ziemba has been a Little 500 rider for only two years, but he has already experienced the highest of the race’s highs and the lowest of its lows. \nTwo years ago, as a rookie rider, Ziemba watched as his ATO teammate Hans Arnesen lapped the field on the way to ATO’s impressive 2006 Little 500 title. \nLast year, however, Ziemba and ATO missed the chance to defend their title when they failed to qualify for the race. It was the first time in the event’s 57-year history that the defending champion failed to qualify for the next year’s race. At Saturday’s qualifications for the 2008 race, ATO will try to learn from last year’s mistakes and earn a spot in this year’s field.\n“As a freshman, I just came into a really good situation,” Ziemba said. “We had really strong leadership and just a really great team. Last year was tough. We trained so hard all year and then having that happen, it was devastating watching everyone else and not being able to compete.”\nAfter dropping the bike during an exchange in its first two attempts, ATO was left with one more chance to complete its run and qualify for the race. But after a judge ruled it made an illegal full-bike exchange on the first exchange of their last attempt, ATO failed to solidify a spot in the race, leaving its competitors stunned.\n“I was actually there when they did their third attempt, and obviously everyone was yelling and screaming and then all of the sudden there was nothing – everything was hushed,” said junior Kirk Weesner, a Pi Kappa Alpha rider. “I was just as shocked as everyone else.”\nWhile some competitors were surprised, others viewed ATO’s mishap as a competitive advantage.\n“I think a lot of teams, to tell you the truth, were more excited than they were shocked because it was good to have a good team like that out,” said junior Chad \nTimmerman, a Phi Sigma \nKappa rider. \nJunior Robert Perez, who was on the front end of ATO’s last exchange, said the final failed run was a result of a misunderstanding of the rules. While initially Perez and ATO supporters were angry at the ruling, their emotions later shifted to regret.\n“It was more disappointing than anything,” he said. “We had worked hard all year leading up to that and we had a really competitive team.”\nOn Saturday, ATO hopes to recover from last year’s disappointment and race up to expectations.\n“Last year, we were coming off spring break and we were riding really fast,” Ziemba said. “We might have been a little cocky and tried to come out too fast.”\nWhile three of the ATO riders missed the chance for race experience last year, Ziemba still believes ATO has a team that can challenge for its second title in three years.\n“We still have a very good team,” Ziemba said. “Our rookies have trained hard, and even though they haven’t been in a race yet, we still consider them veterans. Everyone has improved and our team is a lot stronger.”\nThe first step, though, is to qualify Saturday – something the teammates now know they cannot overlook.\n“We just have to keep calm,” Ziemba said. “Qualifications are probably the most stressful part of the race. You have to do three exchanges in three laps and you only get three attempts. It’s about us being comfortable. It’s not so much about winning, it’s about getting in.”\nWith memories of last year fresh in its mind, ATO will have plenty of incentive Saturday.\n“We don’t want to dwell on it, but it’s obviously good motivation for us,” Perez said. “We want to come back strong after that.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With Little 500 race day quickly approaching, the second spring series event, Miss-N-Out, will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at at Bill Armstrong Stadium. While Individual Time Trials tested the sprinting ability of the riders, Miss-N-Out represents a much different challenge.“Miss-N-Out is definitely a lot different,” Alpha Phi senior Kate Laudermilk said. “It’s really strategy-based and it can be a little confusing for new riders and veterans alike.”Miss-N-Out consists of heats of five to eight riders based on their ITT times. Each rider starts at the same starting line and the last place rider is eliminated each lap until only three riders from the heat remain. The top three from each heat advance in a tournament-style format until the final heat. The top three finishers from the final heat compete in a one-lap sprint to the finish to determine the champion of the event.Miss-N-Out is not unique to Little 500, but the bracket setup is a twist, which separates it from other Miss-N-Out races.“It’s an event that’s been going on in Velodrome racing for a long time now,” Little 500 Race Director Matt Ewing said. “The bracket part of it is unique. We seed each rider and put them in a bracket, much like the NCAA Tournament. And like the NCAA Tournament, the top seeds don’t always make it to the final heat. That’s what makes it such a great event.”Because of its format, Miss-N-Out forces riders to use their complete set of riding skills.“It really combines everything,” Laudermilk said. “It tests a little bit of your endurance, your sprinting ability and your wit.”While riders look to move on throughout the day, many employ different strategies in order to advance.“Some people will try to lead the whole time and make it a sprint and some others will try to stay behind and draft,” Kappa Delta sophomore Jenna Cerone said. “It really just depends on the individual strategy of the rider.”Black Key Bulls junior Isaac Neff, fresh off his victory in the ITTs on Wednesday, will look to win his second spring series event. Neff made it to the final heat of last year’s Miss-N-Out but did not place in the top three.On the women’s side, Teter senior Sarah Rieke will look to defend her Miss-N-Out title from last year after finishing second in the ITTs. Teams will once again earn points toward the spring series based on their finish in Miss-N-Out. After the ITTs, Cutters and Teter raced to an early lead in the men’s and women’s spring series, respectively, after each team placed three riders in the top 10 finishers. Kappa Delta, the defending women’s champion, placed third in qualifications and had four riders in the top 20 at ITTs. The team will try to continue its success on Saturday. “Our goal is for everyone to win their heat,” Cerone said. “If we can do that, then we’ve done a pretty good job.”
With Little 500 race day quickly approaching, the second spring series event, Miss-N-Out, will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at at Bill Armstrong Stadium. While Individual Time Trials tested the sprinting ability of the riders, Miss-N-Out represents a much different challenge.\n“Miss-N-Out is definitely a lot different,” Alpha Phi senior Kate Laudermilk said. “It’s really strategy-based and it can be a little confusing for new riders and veterans alike.”\nMiss-N-Out consists of heats of five to eight riders based on their ITT times. Each rider starts at the same starting line and the last place rider is eliminated each lap until only three riders from the heat remain. The top three from each heat advance in a tournament-style format until the final heat. The top three finishers from the final heat compete in a one-lap sprint to the finish to determine the champion of the event.\nMiss-N-Out is not unique to Little 500, but the bracket setup is a twist, which separates it from other Miss-N-\nOut races.\n“It’s an event that’s been going on in Velodrome racing for a long time now,” Little 500 Race Director Matt Ewing said. “The bracket part of it is unique. We seed each rider and put them in a bracket, much like the NCAA Tournament. And like the NCAA Tournament, the top seeds don’t always make it to the final heat. That’s what makes it such a great event.”\nBecause of its format, Miss-N-Out forces riders to use their complete set of riding skills.\n“It really combines everything,” Laudermilk said. “It tests a little bit of your endurance, your sprinting ability and your wit.”\nWhile riders look to move on throughout the day, many employ different strategies in order to advance.\n“Some people will try to lead the whole time and make it a sprint and some others will try to stay behind and draft,” Kappa Delta sophomore Jenna Cerone said. “It really just depends on the individual strategy of the rider.”\nBlack Key Bulls junior Isaac Neff, fresh off his victory in the ITTs on Wednesday, will look to win his second spring series event. Neff made it to the final heat of last year’s Miss-N-Out but did not place in the top three. \nOn the women’s side, Teter senior Sarah Rieke will look to defend her Miss-N-Out title from last year after finishing second in the ITTs. \nTeams will once again earn points toward the spring series based on their finish in Miss-N-Out. After the ITTs, Cutters and Teter raced to an early lead in the men’s and women’s spring series, respectively, after each team placed three riders in the top 10 finishers. \nKappa Delta, the defending women’s champion, placed third in qualifications and had four riders in the top 20 at ITTs. The team will try to continue its success on Saturday. \n“Our goal is for everyone to win their heat,” Cerone said. “If we can do that, then we’ve done a pretty good job.”
The complete ITT results are posted on the IUSF website. Here are the men's results and here are the women's. Looks like Cutters and Teter fared very well, each placing three riders in the top five. What are your reactions after looking over the results? What individuals surprised? What teams surprised?
Last year, Teter senior Sarah Rieke set a track record time of 2:34.27 during Individual Time Trials. This year, she hopes she can come close to duplicating her record-setting performance.\n“I can only hope to be anywhere close to where I was last year,” Rieke said. “I had a really good week last year. I felt great in quals and ITTs right afterwards.”\nWith Individual Time Trials set to start today at 4 p.m. at Bill Armstrong Stadium, Rieke will look to defend her title from last year. On the men’s side, Cutters rider Sasha Land will look to do the same. \nRieke said her mind-set will not change this year when she comes in as the favorite to win.\n“I was completely surprised by the results last year,” she said. “I didn’t even know what the record was. My eyes were not set on that at all. I’m going in the same way (this year). I do best when I have a rookie heart trying to beat the big girls.”\nWhile Rieke is the clear-cut favorite on the women’s side, Land should have a tougher time repeating his 2007 title. Black Key Bulls junior Isaac Neff finished first in the Individual Time Trials during the fall series and finished fifth in last year’s ITTs. \nThe Individual Time Trials consists of a four-lap sprint around the track by each individual rider. Four riders are on the track at the same time, each starting at a different turn. Each rider begins at a dead stop. A race official holds the back of the bike until the start, and riders start with their feet on the pedals.\n“It gives you more of an individual gauge or measure of how you do,” Acacia senior Carl Eveleigh said of the event. “It individualizes it more in this one event, but in the scheme of everything else, it’s just another piece of trying to come together for the race.”\nBecause it is a sprint, getting off to a good start is a key factor in recording a good time.\n“The starts are where a lot of time can be made up or lost,” Phi Kappa Psi senior David Schweer said. \nIndividual Time Trials are the second event in the spring series events. Other events include Miss-N-Out and the Team Pursuit. Teams earn points based on their finish in each event. After all four events, a series winner is determined, with the winning team wearing white jerseys on race day. \n“It just gives you a lot of confidence heading into race day,” Schweer said of the series events. “It really measures all facets of your team like your individual performance, your sprinting ability and also your team ability. So it’s a really good indication of where you stand.”
Hey everyone. Greg and I just came back from the track and wanted to give you an update of what has been going on.
ITTs are tomorrow starting at 4 p.m. at Bill Armstrong Stadium. Here is a link to the ITT heats courtesy of the IUSF website.
The IU women’s basketball team did not picture its season ending this way.\nA heartbreaking 86-81 overtime loss to James Madison in the second round of the WNIT brought an up-and-down season to a premature end. \n“What a year,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “We certainly had bigger plans for this in our second year here. We certainly believed that there was more basketball for us to play.”\nThe Hoosiers had plans of an NCAA Tournament appearance, and after wins against top-20 opponents West Virginia and Ohio State and a victory over Purdue on the road, there certainly was a possibility of getting there. \nBut IU sputtered down the stretch, losing four of its final seven games including a 30-point loss at Wisconsin and a 15-point loss at Minnesota, essentially eliminating the possibility of an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.\nThrough everything, however, the Hoosiers stayed positive and rallied around the energy of their coach. They never hung their heads when they did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid, and they were ready to play against James Madison – their first WNIT game after a first-round bye.\n“It just didn’t come out our way tonight, but we certainly did everything we could to come out on top,” Legette-Jack said. \nOn Saturday night, IU simply could not find a way to slow down James Madison’s Tamera Young and Dawn Evans. Evans scored 38 points and Young added 30, giving the two players 68 of the team’s 86 points. \n“We know that we don’t give two players that kind of point production,” Legette-Jack said. “We knew that they were their go-to players, but we struggled with them.”\nAfter a 19-win season last year, the Hoosiers finished this season with an 18-15 record and a 10-8 Big Ten record in Legette-Jack’s second season. IU’s young team accomplished a lot this year, leaving Legette-Jack plenty to build upon.\n“Their effort,” Legette-Jack answered when asked what she was most proud of. “We never quit. We never blamed anyone for our losses. We just tried to compete.”\nShe also spoke highly of the Hoosiers’ effort to play for higher causes. IU hosted “Think Pink” to raise breast cancer awareness, they visited children’s hospitals and they welcomed a woman fighting heart disease into the locker room for a game.\n“These kids stand for so much more than the game,” Legette-Jack said. “For them to decide to play for cancer awareness, soldiers in Iraq, children in the hospital, heart disease – these kids are thinking outside the box.” \nEven after a disappointing end to this season, the teary eyes of the players and the coach could not hide the optimism for the future.\nIU will lose only one player in senior guard Nikki Smith and will return its top four scorers along with six freshmen from this year, leaving the team with a solid nucleus for next year.\n“Nikki was a great player for us, but we still have good players coming up and we’re returning everyone else, so I feel we have a bright future,” freshman guard Jori Davis said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After a cold, windy day at Bill Armstrong Stadium for the Little 500 Qualifications, three familiar names sat atop the women’s leader board while the men’s board was shaken up. Teter had the fastest time for the women, winning the pole position – the best starting position on race day – with an unofficial time of 2:39.45, followed by Delta Gamma and defending champion Kappa Delta to round out the top three. Sigma Alpha Mu, a team who finished 11th in last year’s race, earned the first-place green jersey for the men with an unofficial time of 2:23.20.While recent powers Team Major Taylor and Phi Kappa Psi posted the other two top-three times, other traditionally strong teams, such as last year’s champions Cutters, Phi Gamma Delta, Dodds House and Black Key Bulls, fell outside the top 10.“It is definitely for the men’s side a very shaken-up and new-look Quals board,” Little 500 Race Director Matt Ewing said. “You have a lot of teams that aren’t usually up top that did very well today, and you have some teams that maybe some people expected to be up top in that eight through 13 range. I think it will make for a great race day.” Times for teams dropped significantly throughout the day as strong winds died down. The pole position repeatedly changed until Sigma Alpha Mu took the top spot for good after its afternoon run.“It is an honor to be in the pole position,” senior Sigma Alpha Mu rider Ben Gerber said. “This is four years of training. I am ecstatic right now, but at the same time we have a lot of big goals.”Team Major Taylor just missed the top spot by six-tenths of a second.“I thought we had a good run and did what we could do,” Team Major Taylor coach Courtney Bishop said. “It was a tough day for everybody, but we’re happy with it. We have been on the pole before ... it is a great thing for Sammys and the race, but I think (we have) a good starting position.”A scary moment occurred during the early afternoon when Kappa Kappa Gamma senior rider Colleen Groth collided with an IU Student Foundation member who walked onto the track to grab a fallen poster. Groth fell off of the bike and appeared to suffer a serious injury. At press time on Sunday, the Indiana Daily Student did not know the extent to the injury. The remaining three riders completed their attempt and earned the 10th-place position.Many riders said it was crucial to place well at qualifications and earn a top starting position for race day.“There is typically a crash at the beginning of the women’s race, so it is important to be up near the front and get out of the way and be safe,” said senior Cycledelics rider Pam Loebig.Senior Julianne Ellis of Delta Gamma said she believes a good performance in Qualifications can provide team momentum heading into the race. “It gives you a lot of confidence going into the series events and leading up to the race,” Ellis said. “All of the hard work has paid off and we are excited to put it out there on the track.”