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(09/23/11 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The winning tradition began in 1982 with a coach, a forward and a national title.Almost 30 years later, that winning tradition is still growing with the sons of the 1982 coach and forward.Senior defender Tommy Meyer smiled as he stretched on the grass of the practice field after a two-hour practice. It’s the same grass he used to kick a ball across as a kid when he came with his dad, Keith, to watch IU play.Sometimes Tommy’s soccer ball would roll across that grass to the kick wall for the entire match.“I don’t even think I watched games when I came here,” he said. “I was always over here playing.”His time around IU soccer started well before that kick wall and those trips with his dad.It started in his backyard — knocking the ball around with Keith, a two-time IU national champion forward on the men’s soccer team and one of two former IU players who have played in four national championships.“When we were coming to trips here, he’d always bring me along,” Tommy Meyer said. “So, I was around this environment a lot when I was younger. All my uncles, they played soccer too, so I just grew up with soccer.”Before Tommy wore the cream and crimson, IU Coach Todd Yeagley saw him with his dad at alumni events and games, where he met IU soccer players and fans through the years.He’s learned from those who treat the seven stars with honor.“Tommy has been around stories,” Todd Yeagley said. “He’s been around these people his whole life. I think that’s what allowed Tommy to come into this program and have a real sense of pride, to help continue the tradition and put his own legacy on it.”The Tommy Meyer legacy includes 64 starts in 66 career games and a current 5-0-2 team. It doesn’t include any rings, yet.But he’s in search of a championship. He’s got one season left to get that eighth star.“It all starts with the team,” Keith said. “He’s got to be a team player. He’s got to be a leader. From a winning standpoint, it’s a team environment. You’ve got to come to play every day and enjoy it and have the confidence that when he and the team go on the field, they’re not going to lose ... So far, so good.”To be a team player, to have pride in the jersey — it’s all the teaching of 1982 coach Jerry Yeagley. He, too, has watched Tommy grow as a man, a player and a fierce competitor.“Tommy has lived IU soccer all his life, and he is now enjoying it at the level I hoped he would,” Jerry Yeagley said while watching afternoon practice from his car. “You can’t win championships and you can’t be a championship-caliber team without defending.“The old saying is defense wins championships and very honestly, since Tommy was a freshman, sophomore, and even last year, defending was not a consistent part of the team, both individually and collectively. So far, this year it has been, without question, the strength.”Eleven games remain before the road to that next title, and until then, Tommy and his Hoosier teammates are going to keep doing what they’re doing to reach that eighth star.“We’re working on it,” he said. “I think we’re off to a good start.”
(09/21/11 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Eighteen IU athletes will be inducted into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame 2011 class on Sept. 30.“I’m really excited about the class, and I’m excited about the opportunity that the varsity club took to add what we’re calling pioneer members,” said Fred Glass, IU vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics. “It seems like every year a lot of deserving people get passed over because there’s more of an emphasis on the contemporary...Maybe that will make this an extra special year.”Glass announced that the class includes six “contemporary” and 12 “pioneer” inductees. The 18 IU athletes will be inducted into the IU Hall of Fame’s 30th class, bringing the Hall of Fame roster to 188 Hoosiers.“It’s a very good sign of the healthy history and tradition of IU Athletics that after 30 years we still have way more deserving members than we can possibly put in the class,” Glass said. “I think that’s good. I think it’s good that our opportunities are fewer than are qualified people and we get to drag out fights into who ought to be in. It’s a reflection of having more worthy candidates than places to include them.”2011 InducteesContemporaries:James Sniadecki - Football, 1966-68Don Ritter - Basketball and baseball, 1947-49Kristen Kane - Diving, 1991-94Trent Green - Football, 1990-92Clarence Doninger - Athletic director, 1991-2001Ray Tolbert - Men's basketball, 1978-81Pioneers:Gene Thomas - IU's only four-sport letterman, Football, Baseball, Men's basketball and Track, 1920-23Dean Barnhart - Men's basketball, 1909-11Fred "Fritz" Bastian - Tennis, 1919-21Bryce Beecher - Track, 1929-32Eddie Belshaw - Wrestling, 1930-32George Belshaw - Wrestling, 1930-32Bob Jones - Football, 1931-32, Wrestling, 1932-33Rodney Leas - Cross Country, 1928-30Harlan Logan - Men's basketball, 1924-25, Tennis, 1924, Track, 1925Bill Menke - Men's baksetball, 1939-41Chris Traicoff - Wrestling, 1937-39Joe Zeller - Football, 1929-31, Men's basketball, 1930-32
(09/02/11 4:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Four months and four days.That’s how long it took Eric Young to go from being a Little 500 champion to being a national champion.The former Cutters rider, who signed as a professional cyclist with BISSELL only days after winning the 2011 race, won the USA Cycling Pro Criterium Nationals on Aug. 20 in Grand Rapids, Mich.The race had some similarities to the Little 500.There was rain. There was a delay. And there was a sprint for the win.Bikers in the 73-lap race (approximately 50 miles) were 10 laps from completion when the rain started to fall. Young said the road became dangerous with four laps to go.“People were getting pushed off their bikes, and the barricades were getting blown over, and the tents were flying everywhere,” Young said. “It was pretty unsafe with the slick roads.”After a rain delay, which Young said lasted about an hour, the race resumed with 30 laps to go.“All my friends were watching it at the live feed online,” Young said. “And they were just, ‘Oh this (rain delay) is just like Little Five. We’ve got it.’”On the final lap, there was no breakaway. No sprint starting in the back stretch. No slick cinders on turn three.But there was Brad Huff, a Jelly Belly cyclist in search of his fourth national championship.“I was sprinting with this other guy ... sprinting, sprinting, sprinting, and he was in front, and then we were dead even for several seconds,” Young said. “It was close, and just at the end, I got it.”For the next year, he’ll wear a stars-and-stripes jersey in all U.S. criterium races to signify he is the champion. But when he was back on campus this week, he was sporting a Little 500 shirt, new scars and a little bit of shock.“I did not expect that to happen, because it’s kind of a big deal,” Young said. “I’m still digesting it, trying to figure out what it means. Everybody in American cycling kind of knows who I am now ... It’s crazy.”It’s the kind of attention Young shied away from while a part of the Little 500 community and the kind of humility Young’s friend Lyle Feigenbaum said he admires. Feigenbaum is owner of Scholar’s Inn Bakehouse.“He’s not afraid of hard work,” Feigenbaum said. “He used to work for me. He washed dishes, and one day it was 22 degrees out and he wanted to do a 90-mile ride by himself. This is the middle of winter when nobody is riding, and this kid wants to go do this ride by himself. He’s gifted, sure, but he’s the hardest worker, too.”Sitting outside the Indiana Memorial Union, Young laughed when asked how long it will be until he races in the Tour de France. After all, he didn’t start racing competitively until his freshman year at IU.The next step right now for the rookie cyclist is stage races, then hopefully the international scene.But for now, Young’s still trying to digest this new title.“I’m excited to see where I go with this bike racing thing,” he wrote on his blog a few days after victory. “But at the same time, I know I’ll never forget where I started: the family.”
(08/31/11 4:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They don’t know why.Why a former World No. 1 tennis player applied for an online degree-completion program.Why a designer who launched the largest line ever by a female athlete chose a business program at a university in Richmond, Ind.Why Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam winner, is now an IU-East Richmond Red Wolf.But John Oak Dalton, director of communications and marketing at IU-East, said the University is thrilled.“It was very surprising because you just don’t know the path someone takes to find you,” Dalton said. “It was a big name, and it wasn’t someone that we solicited or tried to find or told some celebrity person to go here to grow our online program. We weren’t really seeking out someone like herself. “She just found us like anyone else, I’m guessing, by searching and looking through online programs and trying to see what might be a good fit for her. Obviously what we have over a lot of programs is the Indiana University degree, which is obviously a highly respected, top quality degree.”It started with a sweatshirt. That’s what caught the eye of the American media and many IU students back in the United States. They recognized an IU-East shirt during Williams’ press conference after a match at Wimbledon — and the buzz began.Dalton said the University couldn’t release the status of their celebrity student at the time, but Williams began her IU classes in the summer. She is part of a program that allows her to complete the final 60 hours of a degree she has already begun online. She will have two years and one professional tennis schedule to work around.“We had a lot of concerns about her privacy, but she’s actually the one who has made the overtures,” Dalton said. “She tweeted today ‘Go Red Wolves’ from her official Twitter, which was good because a lot of people thought we were making it up. A lot of people thought we just had someone else named Venus Williams that went to school here.”It’s something IU freshman tennis player Katie Klyczek only had to be told once to believe. Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati, Williams — they’re all on Klyczek’s list of favorite tennis players. She grew up watching Williams compete. She watched the young American and her domineering sister change the game of tennis.“It’s awesome,” Klyczek said. “I grew up wanting to play pro because of her, and now I’m graduating from the same place as her.”Currently ranked No. 36 in the world, Williams began her Women’s Tennis Association career in the early 1990s. She reached No. 1 in 2002, and although she’s moved around the top 10 in the last four years, she finished the 2010 season with her highest finish in the last eight years with the No. 5 ranking.Her 2011 season has been more of a downhill slide, with a third-round retirement from the Australian Open due to a hip injury and eight more tournament withdrawals in the last seven months.But Monday, Williams fired serves clocked as fast as 126 miles per hour during her opening match against Vesna Dolonts of Russia. The American tennis player won the match 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and eight minutes.So why is the eldest Williams sister — currently ranked No. 2 on the career prize money winners list with $27,860,151 (second only to her little sister, Serena) — pursuing a business degree?Why is the creator of V Starr Interiors and designer of her own women’s leather collection for Wilson’s Leather excited to be a Red Wolf?According to her biography on the WTA, Williams “loves studying new subjects” and “after tennis would like to continue her careers in interior design, fashion design and would like to take up choreography and music production.”But Dalton really doesn’t know why the 6-foot-1-inch, right-handed tennis player from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., chose the University that lies 15 miles from the Ohio border.He only knows that something appealed to her to make her apply to IU-East. “It was kind of a bolt out of the sky,” Dalton said. “She looked like anybody else and looked for a school, but there’s only one IU.”
(08/30/11 4:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While birds chirped and students nestled snugly in their beds, headlights illuminated the south end of the Student Recreational Sports Center parking lot.It was 6 a.m.The IU Rowing Club started its 20-minute trip to Lake Lemon.It’s a trip the rowers make at least five times a week for a two-hour practice on the lake — rain or shine or even fog.It’s one that ends in time for the start of their morning classes.And it’s a season that should start again by the end of this week Tim Climis, the club’s coach, said. The IU Rowing Club, in its sixth season, currently has only six rowers and a coxswain. The club’s first regatta is Lemonhead on Oct. 1 at Lake Lemon. Now, they’re looking for new recruits — those interested in being on the water early in the morning.
(08/30/11 3:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Tight pants and a helmet don’t seem like the most attractive outfit, but on this campus the pair make the ultimate fashion statement.More than 250 students turned into athletes on bikes last spring when they competed in the Little 500.Some riders wore greek letters. Others smeared face paint. Four riders donned that seven-letter word: CUTTERS.But there is one strong, common thread that combines most of the participants: before they came to IU, they were high school athletes. Out of 141 riders who took a survey conducted by the IDS in the weeks leading up to the 2011 race, only five said they didn’t participate in a sport for at least one full season in high school.Among the field of riders in the last race, 307 seasons of athletic experience pedaled across a cinder track.The next Little 500 race is more than 200 days away, but the training starts now. Team kits and Little 500 Schwinns are already appearing in the bike lanes across campus. It’s training that’s rigorous. In some cases, it’s been said to be as hard as an NCAA athlete’s workouts.Running the stairs of Ballantine Hall. Cycling on trainers for hours in the winter while watching the same cycling movie from 1979. It’s the hours teams put in now that the riders will talk about come race day.And it’s a student-organized event that anyone who played — or didn’t play — a high school sport can compete in.It’s the Little 500, and it’s for those who have always dreamed of breaking away.
(08/29/11 3:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When the white ball landed at the bottom of junior forward Morgan Fleetwood’s stick with 2:33 remaining in the overtime period, it was only the second time in 49 minutes Fleetwood raised her stick for a shot on goal.It was her second shot against Duke – the team ranked No. 15, who upset No. 6 Ohio State in their match Friday.The shot was her second resulting from a corner.The first time, it was a goal. This time, it was a golden goal.The shot rang off the wood at the back of the goal box as cheers filled the air.Fleetwood threw both hands toward the sky as she screamed and fell to her knees, and eventually her back when her teammates celebrated the 3-2 overtime victory with a dog pile.It was the first time IU played Duke, and it would go down as a W in the record books.“Everyone bought out that game, and it was a whole team effort in overtime,” Fleetwood said.But scoring goals wasn’t just a Sunday gift for Fleetwood. She scored twice Friday at IU Field Hockey Field, where the Hoosiers opened their 2011 campaign with a 3-0 win against Miami (OH).IU returned three of four starting defenders to open the season, senior Brenna Moeljadi, sophomore Danielle McNally and sophomore Hannah Boyer. The fourth defender, freshman Stefani Day, has transitioned seamlessly, Boyer said.“She’s come right in and picked up on things right away,” Boyer said.Sophomore Maggie Olson started in the cage for IU and recorded two saves in her first regular season start. Senior Viki Green played the second half in the cage.Each goalkeeper faced only one penalty corner.The experience of the Hoosiers’ defenders contributed to the low tally of penalty corners for the RedHawks.“Our composure was really important,” Boyer said. “We stayed composed under pressure. Our communication was positive throughout the game.”IU Coach Amy Robertson said her defenders’ experiences earlier in their careers have led to the ability to handle chaos with confidence.“They’ve learned,” said the 12-year coach. “You’re not going to get a lot of corners against us. We’re good tacklers. We can see situations before they’re actually forming and take care of it.”On Sunday, the Hoosiers took the game against Duke in chunks.“We focus on pieces that we can control,” Robertson said. “We don’t think about the outcome ... They didn’t let the pressure rattle them. They didn’t look at the magnitude of what the result could mean for them.”As for her forward who scored four of the team’s six goals in their opening weekend?“Morgan is one of the strongest people I’ve ever known,” Robertson said. “She can go through people, but now she’s finding where the defense is imbalanced, when she can get shots, how she can create space for herself. So really, she’s just become a smarter player. She always had the strength to do what she’s doing.”After the game, Fleetwood called the game a “confidence builder.”“Going 2-0 this weekend, that’s a huge deal for us,” the forward said, “especially after last year. We didn’t have the best season.”In the score box, Duke had 19 shots to IU’s six. The Blue Devils had nine corners. IU had five and scored off three, but the one that mattered most for IU was the final one that lead to the game-winning goal.“We have a lot of talent on this team,” Fleetwood said. “It’s just putting it together and creating opportunities and finishing. We did all of that this weekend.”
(08/25/11 2:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In an annual staff meeting for the IU Athletics Department on Tuesday, more than 300 employees listened to IU President Michael McRobbie talk about the price of winning.In his speech, McRobbie praised the department’s excellence and recognized championships and other honors.The message was clear. Winning comes at a price, and it’s not one McRobbie is willing to pay.The allegations the University of Miami is currently facing are not news McRobbie wants to see surrounding his school.“He emphasized that this can’t happen here and won’t happen here, and why it won’t happen here and why he won’t tolerate it here,” IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said. “We’re on the exact same page with that, given that our recognized No. 1 priority in the Athletics Department is to follow rules. But it’s good for everyone in the Athletics Department to hear from the top that winning is important, but winning the right way is more important.”
(08/23/11 2:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>May 16 - Former IU wrestling coach Doug Blubaugh — three-time All-America wrestler and 1960 Olympic gold medalist — dies in a motorcycle accident in Tonkawa, Okla. Blubaugh was 76 years old.May 20 - Men’s basketball forward Bobby Capobianco announces he’s leaving the program. Capobianco transfers to Valparaiso University.May 22 - Former IU quarterback Dave Schnell passes away after a battle with cancer. He was 44.June 7 - Two Hoosiers are selected during the MLB Draft: outfielder Alex Dickerson by the Pittsburgh Pirates and pitcher Blake Monar by the Washington Nationals.June 18 - Calbert Cheaney is named Indiana’s director of basketball operations. Cheaney, who played for IU from 1989 to 1993, was a three-time All-American and won the 1993 Naismith award.June 27-July 5 - Junior forward Orianica Velasquez competes as part of the Colombian Women’s National Team for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.July 1 - Nebraska officially joins the Big Ten, making it a 12-team conference.July 25 - Former IU wide receiver Terrance Turner wastes little time when the NFL lockout ends to find a team, signing with the Philadelphia Eagles.July 26 - The Washington Redskins sign former IU quarterback Ben Chappell. In 2010, Chappell led the Big Ten in passing yards and completions.July 27 - Gunner Kiel, the nation’s top-rated quarterback, gives IU a verbal commitment.July 27 - Former IU wide receiver Tandon Doss signs a four-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens.Aug. 11 - Kevin Wilson and radio hosts Zakk and Jack of WNDE 1260 AM argue on air.Aug. 18 - The IU Board of Trustees approves construction for a new baseball and softball complex.
(08/11/11 10:13pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>To the students of Indiana University, it’s not just a bike race. It’s the Little 500.Each spring, hundreds of students turn into athletes in the largest collegiate cycling race in the country and the biggest intramural event at IU when they ride in the Little 500. Modeled after the motor race that takes place 56 miles away at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Little 500 sends four-person teams in separate races for men and women around a quarter-mile track. Howdy Wilcox, then-executive director of the Indiana University Student Foundation, founded the Little 500 race in 1951, 32 years after his father won the Indianapolis 500.The race has since been featured in the 1979 movie “Breaking Away,” which tells the tale of an underdog team of locals who work to win the race. The team acquires the nickname “Cutters” after the phrase used as an insult to stone cutters who worked at Bloomington limestone quarries.Similar to the traditions of kissing the sidewalk and drinking cold milk that accompany the Indy 500, the Little 500 is full of the traditions of mounting Schwinns and crashing on Turn Three.But it’s also an experience — one that former Cutters rider Eric Young will never forget.Young, a four-year rider for the historic Bloomington team, crossed the finish line first each of his four years riding in the Little 500 — it’s a feat no other rider had done before.The Cutters rider had always planned to go to graduate school for neuroscience following his time in Bloomington. He had never heard of the Little 500 before his first year at IU, but four championships and one contract later, Young became a professional cyclist for Bissell cycling.“I did not think I would be earning money to race until my senior year,” Young said. “I learned a lot from Little Five — a lot about teamwork and perseverance. It definitely defined my college experience.”Coordinated by the IU Student Foundation, the Little 500 helps raise money that goes to working student scholarships. Little 500 has raised more than $1.5 million in scholarships since its inception. And though it is an intramural event, Wing It! rider Abigail Legg said most teams don’t treat it like one.“We train about six days a week,” Legg said. “We change our diets around Little Five. We change our class schedules around Little Five. ... You’re part of something so much bigger than yourself and much bigger than just a bike race in April.”
(06/01/11 4:46pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Cutters won the 61st running of the men’s Little 500, earning the team its fifth-straight victory — a feat no other team in Little 500 history has accomplished.Just 45 laps into the 200-lap race, the defending champions found their rookie rider Kevin Depasse in a wreck after a Sigma Nu rider knocked his handle bars.Once they recovered, they found themselves a lap down to Phi Delta Theta, the race leaders.Phi Delt finished second in the 2010 race. It was senior Phi Delt Steve Sharp, Chris West and Sven Gartner’s last shot at the Borg-Warner trophy, and they spent the next 154 laps defending their position at the front.However, the legs of a whole team pulled the Cutters out of their one-lap deficit.“We just were kind of patient, tried to not get too uptight, just got from there and just take it a bit at a time,” senior Cutters Zach Lusk said. “It just shows you it’s a crazy race. Anybody can crash. Anything can happen. Luckily it happened early, so we had a lot of time to catch up.”By lap 175, 130 laps after the wreck, the Cutters were back in the lead lap and pulled to the front.Eric Young got on the bike. He was set to pedal the final 10 laps of one of the most storied Little 500 careers.He pedaled behind Phi Delt as it went in for two exchanges. Then on Lap 199, Phi Delt shocked Bill Armstrong Stadium when the team went in for an exchange. This time, Young raised himself off his seat and pumped his legs, creating a gap between him and the Phi Delt exchange.Young raced the final three turns with no competition, pedaling to his team’s 12th title in its 27-year existence.“It’s everything,” he said. “Getting lapped and un-lapping yourself. Five years of winning in a row. It being my last year ... I didn’t expect us to get a lap down but I also didn’t expect us to get a lap back either.“It came down to a race of who was the strongest team. I knew we could do it.”After the race, Young announced his decision to turn pro. He will join the BISSELL Pro Cycling Team.
(04/27/11 5:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Paused in a crouch, the Redstorm Rugby players glare into their opponents’ eyes. Inches separate them. Seconds pass. They lunge. For Redstorm Rugby, IU’s women’s Rugby Club, there is no protective gear, no jewelry and no soft mentalities. There is a lot of pushing, pulling, shoving and bruising competition.They play a game of respect based on laws (rules) and run by sirs (referees). They’re college women playing the game more known for European men with large chests and tiny shorts, but IU’s Redstorm has scrummed off North Fee Lane since 1996.They might seem brutal on the field, but their car trips are filled with 90s hits, and nobody dares skip a Disney song. They giggle at the way their Irish-accented GPS says the word “hundred.” When the car stops for a rest in West Virginia on the way to a weekend tournament in Charlottesville, Va., some Redstorm players are afraid to get out of the car. They fear they look “too gay” for the place. They stick with late-night practices and tournaments states away because they are obsessed with eating, thinking, breathing, dreaming, playing and partying around rugby.They are rough on the field, but off the field they’re just students pursuing degrees in subjects such as atmospheric science, athletic training and music. They’re a group of women who, contrary to popular belief, have all their teeth.On the field, they’re the toughest women you never knew existed. * * *It’s a rugby Saturday. Senior Susan Werbe watches the game from the edge of the parking lot after she received a red card for stomping, an act of driving another player into the ground with a foot. Werbe admits it wasn’t her shining rugby moment. In rugby, a red card means the player must leave the field, and there are no substitutes for a player who receives a red card. Redstorm plays with 14 instead of 15.Werbe watches the teams clash. Despite being outnumbered, IU pulls ahead.Werbe can’t stand the distance between the team and her. She throws on a sweatshirt, pulls up the hood so the sir can’t see her face and walks closer to the field. As a freshman, Werbe was asked to join the rugby team. She refused, saying she was “too girly” for the sport. Now she doesn’t take a second look at the purple and green bruises from the hits she takes. She can’t get enough.“I’m addicted to rugby,” Werbe said.The team has found a family and bonded through acceptance and praise. They braid each other’s hair and scream at bed bugs in shabby motels together. Some of the girls have hidden secrets for years. They have had people project assumptions on them for the way they dress or style their hair and for the sport they play. In fact, some of the players are gay and some are straight. But that’s not what defines them as athletes or people. * * *The Redstorm players are dressed in athletic shorts and T-shirts and let yawns escape periodically.It is past 10 p.m. on a Tuesday. Drinks are on special for $2 at Kilroy’s, but the team doesn’t care.On this night, they occupy half of the field inside Mellencamp Pavilion. The club baseball team practices on the other side. Both teams are cramped, leaving the rugby team to work with less than half of a field they use for official matches.“Come on, ladies!” shouts one of the girls. “You don’t whisper in a game. Talk loud.”The Redstorm players sling the oval-shaped ball across their bodies to their target. It’s a drill of choreographed chaos, and the lack of communication leads to a few overthrown balls hitting girls in the head.In the middle of the madness is senior Tyra McGrady. The 5 foot 2 inch tall winger might not be the height of a dreamed-up rugby player, but as a two-time First Team All-American, she believes she has the potential to play for one of the women’s leagues.While she knows she might have to use her degree in exercise science to find a second job to support her rugby career, she only wants to play rugby. In the final drill of the night, McGrady somersaults and then springs into a full sprint without missing a beat. The rest of the players are so exhausted. They jog, flail and crawl between lines. “I’m not going to be able to walk when I’m thirty,” McGrady says with a laugh after practice.“They have a wheelchair rugby squad,” someone assures her.“So it never has to end,” McGrady says. “Rugby’s life. After rugby, there’s death.”* * *It’s another rugby Saturday. Redstorm shows up to Mad Bowl Field along Rugby Road at the University of Virginia. The squad that made the trip consists of mostly rookies as tests. Personal reasons kept five of nine senior starters at home.A rookie known as “Jacobs” sits by her teammates as they braid each other’s hair. Her arms are wrapped around her knees. She has a nervous smile on her face.Jacob’s hands are everything. As a freshman in IU’s Jacobs School of Music — hence her nickname — her entire career rests completely on her 10 fingers. But rugby brings her joy. She loves rugby just as she loves music.Vaughn Mitchell, the coach and former IU men’s rugby player, breaks her nervous smile as he gives advice. “The key is to make your tackles,” he tells his rookies. “If you don’t, they’re going to be out to the races.”During the game, Jacobs’ prized hands catch the ball after a Virginia kickoff. It is a play the rookie hadn’t accomplished in the last seven months. Vaughn cheers from the sideline in joy. The rugby girls hug Jacobs. The celebration doesn’t last long. A few tackles later, the ball is back in Virginia’s hands and Virginia scores a try, which is worth five points. In the end, Virginia scores 67 unanswered points. After the game, the team sits in silence, but smiles quickly spread through the team. Sure, they’re upset about the loss, but they know how to celebrate the tiny victories.“It’s all about adversity, how are you going to respond?” Vaughn tells Redstorm. “What can you do individually? We didn’t come all the way through the mountains for 10 hours to just lie down.”Two luxury buses pull up to the field. Vaughn follows the glances of his players.“Ya’ll, we ain’t got Ivy (League) money,” Vaughn says with a laugh.* * *Abby Yates leans against the edge of the third floor of the parking garage that overlooks the final pitch of a rugby tournament weekend.As a bird chirps, Yates sighs. Earlier in the morning, she clambered to the floor-to-ceiling window of her Days Inn room only to peel back the curtain and see rain falling hard.It could sprinkle or downpour — it doesn’t really matter. Redstorm plays in anything but lightning — especially downpours. Muddy clothes are encouraged. Nobody wants to warm up in the downpour, so they share the lower level of the garage with some guys playing bike polo. Redstorm rugby always shares its space. The rain continues to pour. Redstorm stays dry until eight minutes before the game.Then Vaughn looks at his watch and says, “I kept you dry long enough. Let’s go.”As they leave the parking garage, the team tries to run straight to the pitch, but Vaughn stops them at an open field beyond the gated playing area.“Right shoulders, right shoulders,” he yells.In pairs, the rugby girls crouch before they spring forward, tackling each other at the right shoulder. They fall to the ground. Mud sprays into the air and over their faces, making them look like battle-worn soldiers. They take the field against Princeton just hoping to not miss tackles and to finish the scrums.Redstorm loses, scoring only once, but the team leaves the field not really knowing the score. The scoreboard isn’t used, but the score doesn’t seem to matter to Redstorm anyway. With Redstorm, it isn’t just about winning. It is about learning and coming together.As they walk off the field, they think about the 10-hour drive back to IU in wet clothes. There’s no visiting team locker room in which to change. No bathroom is close enough — just the parking garage.From behind their opened car doors, the rugby girls begin to change into dry clothes.“Hey! Don’t look,” they giggle to each other as East coast girls in a red Ford Taurus drive by, wide-eyed.Just one more thing they have to share.
(04/21/11 3:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Every year, Little 500 cyclists strategize, ride aggressively and pedal in a pack in hopes of winning it all. Mistakes are made. Tires and handle bars collide. We’re left with a memory of tires, bike frames and student-athletes flying into the air.What they’re left with are the stories and the cinder scars to prove them.The one and onlySenior Matt Woerner felt chills go up his arms as the names of the Little 500 women’s teams were announced.Woerner has spent almost four years in Bloomington. He had never seen the races that make up the World’s Greatest College Weekend, but he was set to pedal in the men’s race the next day.His team, #JungleExpress, was comprised completely of rookie riders who decided in the fall that the traditional IU bike race seemed like a great way to end their time in Bloomington.At around lap 15 of 200, Woerner made a clean exchange with his teammate and pedaled his first lap on the cinder track. Then he pedaled his second. He said he was excited to be racing in the Little 500, and maybe he was too aggressive. But lap three didn’t go as smoothly as laps one and two.As Woerner rounded the backstretch into turn three, his front tire overlapped with the back tire of the bicycle in front of him.“The tires just got locked up,” Woerner said. “They were just stuck like glue.”He knew then he was going to crash. He heard the crack of his helmet. He felt the burn of the cinders. Soon he was looking at the fenders of his bike.Scrapes bled across his knees, his ankle and his shoulder.And just like that, 15 minutes into the race, his Little 500 cycling career was over.“It’s unfortunate, and I’m trying to remain positive, but it was just too short-lived,” the #JungleExpress rookie said.The doctor on the infield refused to let him back in the race. His three rookie teammates rode 182 laps without him. They finished 24th.“It was my first and last Little Five,” Woerner said. “It’s not what I wanted obviously, but just the whole atmosphere, just the journey to do it with these three guys. ...It’s just a great experience and an honor to be a part of it. I’d do it again.”Fall down, get back upSophomore Tom Laser was rounding turn three when the first crash happened. It was lap 45 and a row in front of him a rider’s handle bars collided with the rider next to him, causing him to fall off balance to the track. Like a row of dominoes, the pack began dropping to the cinders when they came in contact with the falling bikes.The rookie Beta rider was a few rows into the pack. There was no way to get out of it. He knew he was going down.“It was kind of — brace yourself,” Laser said.He flew off the bike and hit the cinders while the front tire of his bike popped off the frame. His teammate hopped on a bike and took off down the track while Laser walked back to his pit.It was lap 100. Laser and a rider were working together to pull each other around the track. Laser went in for an exchange — at the same time as the rider he was working with.“He clipped my wheel a little bit,” Laser said.When he hit the cinders this time, he wasn’t able to brace himself. His head hit the track.“I went down real hard,” Laser said. “Don’t really remember much.”He realized his helmet was no longer on his head. His sunglasses were gone and, for some reason, he was looking at the crowd.“The EMTs ran out and kind of asked me how I was,” Laser said. “I was a little out at that point, so they put me on the stretcher and took me off.”In the medical tent, the EMTs asked Laser questions to see if he was showing signs of a concussion. He passed, and they told him if he could get up and walk around after a few minutes, they would let him decide if he wanted to return to the race.Laser wasn’t going to waste a year of training watching the race from the tent.“As soon as they told me they were going to let me make the decision, I was set on going back out,” Laser said. “I didn’t want to leave my teammates out there in the rain doing another 100 laps.”Laser was rounding turn three; 58 laps had passed since the crash that caused him to be carried off in a stretcher.He said his third crash was much like the first one.“I believe contact was made maybe one or two rows in front of me. I saw a rider to my left go down and then to my right,” Laser said.He hit the cinders, rolled and landed on his bike. His bike was still intact, so he picked it up, dusted himself off and jumped back on the pedals.“When I jumped on the bike, I thought, ‘Really, three times?’” Laser said. “As I rode past my pit, I kind of shrugged at my coach. That’s how it goes, I guess.”Laser said he didn’t sustain any major injuries and has no head pains. He now has bruises on his hips, back and shoulders and cuts all over. He’ll return to the bike in about a week.“When you train for nine months or a year for something that goes by in two hours, you really want to get every moment of it,” Laser said.
(04/19/11 2:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Any other week of the school year, senior Kyle Tutton goes out to a bar twice a week on average.During Little 500, Tutton was one of thousands of IU students who extended the “World’s Greatest College Weekend” into a full week.Tutton started with Kilroy’s on Kirkwood on Monday and made a trip almost nightly to the bars until Saturday. His celebrations, along with a majority of the rest of campus, had an effect on Bloomington.Mike McAfee, the executive director of Monroe County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said while there aren’t any specific numbers, the Little 500 and the week leading up to it made a definite impact on Bloomington’s economy.“It’s a lot of friends coming in to party with friends,” McAfee said.More couches in Bloomington were taken up, leaving hotel rooms still vacant. Restaurants absorbed most of the impact, McAfee said.Susan Bright, co-owner of Nick’s English Hut, said Little 500 is one of Nick’s biggest weekends. Patrons started trickling in more than usual Tuesday, but the big culmination was the weekend.“We probably saw 2,000 people on Saturday and Friday,” Bright said. “It’s like our big football weekends. We have to add staff and add deliveries of beer, liquor and food.”At Nick’s, every employee of the 75-member staff is expected to work. It’s something each employee knows when they are hired, Bright said.“You have to have a pretty good excuse not to,” she said with a laugh. “We like it. We look forward to it, but we’re glad when it’s over though too.”Big Red Liquors also saw an increase in sales. Wade Shanower, president of Big Red Liquors, said a majority of their Little 500 activity is on Friday and Saturday.“Little 500 is our largest week of the year overall in Bloomington,” Shanower said.Although he declined to give specific numbers, Shanower said the week before Little 500 and the week after the races are normal sales weeks. However, Little 500 sales compare with Welcome Week, Labor Day weekend and tailgates before football games.“We have lots of impact in the fall, but it’s over five to seven home games,” Shanower said. “Little Five is really concentrated.”The real impact Little 500 has on Bloomington is the attention it draws.“It’s one of the best events in the country for a university,” McAfee said.That is why the “World’s Greatest College Weekend” drew students from other universities such as Notre Dame, Ball State and Purdue.“Once you’ve come to Little Five once, you’re going to want to come back,” Tutton said.
(04/18/11 3:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As Eric Young looked over his right shoulder, he saw Phi Delta Theta go in for an exchange.It was a Lap 199. It was the move the Cutter had been waiting for.The four-year Cutters rider sprinted the final three turns to win the 61st running of the men’s Little 500, earning his team its fifth-straight victory — a feat no other team in Little 500 history has accomplished.“My last set I was tired,” Young said. “It was just about marking people and staying with them. Phi Delt was attacking pretty good. On the last set, they exchanged, and I knew it was over once they did that.”The exchange was an opportunity Young said he thought he would never have. Just 45 laps into the 200-lap race, the defending champions found their rookie rider Kevin Depasse in a wreck after a Sigma Nu rider knocked his handle bars.The Cutters found themselves in a rare position — battling from behind to get to the front of the pack.A majority of the crowd cheered. Once the Cutters recovered, they found themselves a lap down to Phi Delta Theta, the race leaders.Phi Delts finished second in the 2010 race. It was senior Phi Delts Steve Sharp, Chris West and Sven Gartner’s last shot at the Borg-Warner trophy, and they spent the next 154 laps defending their position at the front.However, the legs of a whole team pulled the Cutters out of their one-lap deficit.“We just were kind of patient, tried to not get too uptight, just got from there and just take it a bit at a time,” senior Cutter Zach Lusk said. “It just shows you it’s a crazy race. Anybody can crash. Anything can happen. Luckily it happened early, so we had a lot of time to catch up.”By lap 175, 130 laps after the wreck, the Cutters were back on the lead lap and pulled to the front.Young, whose eligibility was questioned by other riders because of his affiliation with a pro team, got on the bike. He was set to pedal the final 10 laps of one of the most storied Little 500 careers.At lap 195, Phi Delts went in for an exchange in their pit near turn one.It could have been Young’s chance to break away, but instead he stopped pedaling. He waited until Phi Delts made a clean exchange. They pulled in front of Young for the lead around the track. Young drafted on their bike tire for two laps until the Phi Delts went in for another exchange. It was his second chance to pull away. Young chose to stop pedaling again. He rode two more laps on the back tire of the Phi Delts. Then on Lap 199, Phi Delts shocked Bill Armstrong Stadium when they went in for an exchange. This time, Young raised himself off his seat and pumped his legs, creating a gap between him and the Phi Delt exchange.“We’ve done it before,” West said of the exchange. “We were hoping it would work, but it didn’t.”Young raced the final three turns with no competition, pedaling to his team’s 12th title in its 27-year existence.“We were just trying to hold him off,” West said of Young’s attack. “It was tough. It was essentially us on the front a lot of the time. It was just hard to hold him off. He’s a great rider.”Young crossed the finish line on the cinder track at Bill Armstrong Stadium for the final time in his Little 500 racing career.It wasn’t the exact way he expected the race to be won, but comparing the last two victories, Young said this year’s race was better.“It’s everything,” he said. “Getting lapped and un-lapping yourself. Five years of winning in a row. It being my last year ... I didn’t expect us to get a lap down but I also didn’t expect us to get a lap back either. ... It came down to a race of who was the strongest team. I knew we could do it.”After the race, Young announced he will turn pro Wednesday. He will join the BISSELL Pro Cycling Team.
(04/16/11 10:02pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After an early crash, the Cutters looked out of contention, but the team hasn’t won four-straight titles for no reason.Before 50 laps were in the books for the 61st running of the Men’s Little 500, Cutters’ rookie rider Kevin Depasse fell to the cinders after colliding with a Sigma Nu rider.The wreck left the Cutters, Sigma Chi and Delta Tau Delta a lap down, but Sigma Nu was able to recover.“When you hear you crash you want to get up and go quickly,” Cutter's rider Eric Young said. “But I saw the pack go around and I didn’t see the yellow jersey going around I got kind of worried.”Phi Delta Theta was able to avoid the crash and they took the lead. Sigma Nu, the pole team, sat in second. The race could have been Phi Delts, but the Little 500 race is an event of misfortunes and sharp strategies.For about 100 laps, the race sat between Phi Delt and Black Key Bulls, exchanging the lead, with Acacia and FIJI also fighting for the front spot.Maybe this is when the Cutters’ constant watching of old races helped them. Maybe this is when Sigma Chi coach Tom Schwoegler’s strategic mind really helped them come back from being in ninth place. Maybe this is when the Cutters’ strength in Eric Young really did give his team the advantage.Whatever it was, Sigma Chi and Cutters caught up to Phi Delt.When Phi Delt went to pull away, Young sat on his bike tire and drafted behind him, leaving Sigma Chi behind. Senior Phi Delt rider Chris West said their front position was tough to keep.“It was essentially us on the front a lot of the time,” West. “It was just hard to hold off.”When Phi Delts went in for an exchange on Lap 199 is when Young made his move for the win.Through controversy and hate-filled chants, the Cutters prevailed. The independent team won its fifth straight Little 500 victory, a feat no other team in the race has ever accomplished.Including Saturday’s victory, the Cutters have won 12 races in the team’s 27-year existence.“We had to find a way to get back from a lap down and make it work,” Young said. “It came down to a race of who was the strongest team.”Here are the unofficial placements from the men's Little 500. 1. Cutters
2. Phi Delta Theta
3. Sigma Chi
4. Delta Tau Delta
5. Acacia
6. Black Key Bulls
7. Hoosier Climber?
8 Delta Chi
9. Sigma Nu Fraternity
10. Phi Kappa Psi
11. Kappa Sigma
12. Theta Chi
13. Gray Goat Cycling
14. Sigma Phi Epsilon
15. Phi Gamma Delta
16. Cru Cycling
17. Beta Theta Pi
18. Air Force Cycling
19. Emanon
20. Dodds House
21. Wright Cycling
22. LAMP
23. CSF Cycling
24. #Jungle Express
25. Sigma Pi
26. Delta Sigma Pi
27. Sigma Alpha Epsilon
28. Sigma Alpha Mu
29. Delta Upsilon
30. Pi Kappa Alpha
31. Achtung
32. Evans Scholars
33. Phi Kappa Sigma
(04/15/11 11:05pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Caitlin Van Kooten crossed the finish line, she wasn’t going at race speed. She wasn’t worried about who was on her back wheel. It didn’t even matter if she slowed down 30 yards before the finish line to throw her hands in the air and scream.Teter won the race with 50 laps remaining in the 100-lap race when the team lapped the field. Teter won the Little 500 for the second straight year.For the first 50 laps, the race had been between Teter and Delta Gamma, which finished third in last year’s race. DG took the pole at Qualifications and started in first position. Teter and DG both avoided the major crash that happened less than 10 laps into the race. At that point in the race, a pack of about 19 riders were rounding turn three when a collision of handle bars caused a domino effect on the field. The worst affected rider was Alpha Gamma Delta’s Mindi Balchan. AGD finished second in the 2010 race.Three yellow flags waved before any team rode their 25th lap.After Teter lapped the field, the race remained between DG and Pi Beta Phi, which qualified seventh. DG lead for a majority of the race, but Pi Phi’s Caroline Brown pulled ahead with less than 20 laps remaining. DG’s Kelsey Kent could never make up the ground between her and the two other senior riders of Teter and Pi Phi.The victory is Teter’s third Little 500 title. Teter’s Caitlin Van Kooten won the Miss-N-Out, ITTs and Team Pursuit, the Little 500 Spring Series Events.Unofficial race results: http://www.idsnews.com/blogs/hoosierhype/?p=15435
(04/15/11 5:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>He was early as usual. His red jersey made him stick out against the cement pavement like a fire hydrant on a street corner.Fraternity brothers from a house bordering the stadium walked past Zach Lusk, glancing at the Little 500 cyclist. They didn’t know who he was. Not many IU students do. They don’t recognize his mug from the front page of the newspaper.Few remember his smile as he hoisted the Borg Warner trophy in victory each of the last three years.They remember his teammate, Eric Young.Young has dominated the Little 500 race since he joined the Cutters team in 2007. He has experienced everything from crossing the finish line with his hands extended to the sky in jubilation to being the center of a professional status debate in an amateur sport.And Lusk has been there through all of it with Young. He has defended his team. He has taken the glares that come with wearing that white shirt with “CUTTERS” in black written across the chest. He has heard the rally cries of a contingency cheering for his team to fail.Lusk welcomes the curse-filled chants. Define him by those seven letters — he’ll wear them with pride. He has something nobody else on any other team in the field has: three championships.He is the other Cutter.***It was just a few days after the 2008 race that Young and coach Jim Kirkham asked themselves the same question when they saw Lusk’s 6-foot, unfit frame for the first time.“He didn’t have a rider’s body at all,” Young said.In the single-stoplight town of New Carlisle, Ind., about 20 miles from the edge of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana, corn and baseball reign.Lusk grew up on the fields of his family’s farm and played baseball for his high school team, the New Prairie Cougars.He spent one season playing ball for Manchester College before transferring to IU.In Bloomington, he realized what he thought college was for: beer and partying.After one semester, Lusk discovered the shape he was in from baseball wasn’t easy to maintain. He wanted to do something to change that. He contacted his former cross country teammate Eric Hamilton.Hamilton rode in the Little 500 for the Cutters, and he introduced Lusk to the Cutters’ Clayton Feldman, who told Lusk he should give cycling a try. Runners make great cyclists, and great cyclists win championships.“I didn’t discount him, but at the same time I really didn’t think he was going to stick around long,” Kirkham said.Lusk arrived thinking his first ride with the team would be an easy, 45-minute jog. After all, it was a hot day for riding.That day, however, the Cutters had a different ride planned: a 100K route, or 62 miles.“He had gone out drinking the night before,” Young said with a smile.At around 20 miles, the Cutters rode near Lake Monroe.“We were coming up to a church near (state road) 37 and he drops off the pack,” Young said. “He gets off the bike, collapses on the ground and says, ‘I don’t know if I can get back on.’”Lusk lie in the grass off the shoulder of SR 37. A friend came and picked up him and his brand-new bike from the side of the road.“We joke with him that the only reason he continued to ride was he wasn’t going to let that new bike go to waste,” Young said. “Now he’s improved more than anyone else I’ve ridden with.”***In athletics, legacies outlive athletes.But in college, a dynasty can be made in just four years.The IU class of 2011 has seen no one else win but the Cutters.Lusk said he and his team do not care if fans are growing tired of the same team winning year after year.Regardless of what people think, the Cutters say they don’t recruit. Lusk said the team doesn’t care who a rider is — ask to go for a ride and you shall receive, but you better show up to practice.They train to win, but at the same time the Cutters have grown into a family.At the end of the day, Kirkham reminds his team that the Little 500 is just a silly little bike race. In the overall view of things, the bonds of friendship mean much more.Lusk isn’t all about the race. He considers Young one of his best friends and is known for his tireless work, but he knows college is only four races long.He said he lives a college life, but it’s not the stereotypical one with drinking to get drunk.“I’m really into Little Five, and it’s definitely changed my life, but I’m also here to kind of somewhat get a college experience,” Lusk said.Compared to his senior teammate and co-captain Young, Lusk is a self-admitted party animal.“Eric has probably been to the bars maybe three times this year,” Lusk said. “I consider him one of my best friends, but at the same time he’s kind of boring. He’s to the tee, and he knows what he needs to do. He goes to class, rides his bike, stretches, goes to bed.”Lusk said Young has more race knowledge than anybody else in the field, which is what makes him so good. But what makes the Cutters good — the whole team, not just their star senior rider — is that they all study the race. They all stretch. They all race to win.“We definitely have the depth this year to do it,” Lusk said. “Whatever comes of it, we can win this race without Eric, if need be.”
(04/15/11 4:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite the fact that Eric Young has ridden in multiple Category 2 races, which normally goes against IU Student Foundation rules, he remains eligible to compete in Saturday’s Little 500 race, said IUSF Little 500 race director Pam Loebig.This is not the first time his eligibility has been questioned. This time, the dispute was about whether two track rides during the summer of 2009 would deem Young ineligible for this year’s men’s Little 500 race because of his professional rider status.In February, Young was photographed on an official team ride with the BISSELL Pro Cycling team. However, according to IUSF and the Cutters, Young has not signed with a professional team, which would make him a Category 2 amateur. In USA Cycling, a Category 2 rider is considered a semipro.In race records from www.truesport.com, a cycling website whose goal is to provide information on cycling races to riders, Young is listed as riding as a Category 2 rider in two separate races.IUSF’s Little 500 Rules of Eligibility Section II.I state that a student with no cycling experience prior to attending IU can participate in the Little 500 and can upgrade to a Category 1 or 2 rider for only a year.Young filed his appeal to be a Category 2 rider on the track and a Category 1 on the road for his final race after the 2010 Little 500.USA Cycling confirmed Young’s current category status. It also acknowledged that track races can often be informal.As for the Little 500, Young will race Saturday.The first race that put Young’s status for the Little 500 in question occurred on July 17, 2009, when Young rode in the Major Taylor Velodrome Hot Summer Nights Series in Indianapolis. That night, Young was listed as racing in a Category 1/2/3 men’s race, meaning riders from all categories combined to race. He rode in a Category 3 men’s eight-lap scratch race and is also listed as riding in the Category 1/2 men’s race.Loebig was there that night. She said Young’s riding in the Category 2 race does not cause him to be ineligible for this year’s Little 500. Ken Nowakowski, coach of Delta Tau Delta and race director of the Indianapolis races, said Young’s race was not an official upgrade but an invitation that the race has given to riders — men, women and junior — during the past 13 years.“The field at Major Taylor is not that great at times,” Nowakowski said. “It can be very lean at times, like a low amount of participants. Anyway, he got the nod from me saying, ‘If you want to ride in it, you’re welcome to do so.’ Nothing more than an invitation. Nothing having to do with any kind of an upgrade. Just a provisional invitation. That was it. Just for that night, for that moment only.”However, on Sept. 18-19 in 2009, Young raced again in Indianapolis at the Major Taylor Velodrome College Prep Racing.The race records show that Young finished second in the Men’s Category 3 200-meter Time Trial. Young is also listed as having competed in the Men’s Category 1/2 12-lap Scratch Race. He was not listed under the Men’s Category 3/4 10-Lap Scratch Race.“That one does look a little funky, doesn’t it?” Nowakowski said. “At that point, he would have probably asked me if he could have ridden it.”Nowakowski’s book of notes of the races he’s directed no longer has the 2009 results or the notes listing which Category 3 riders he might have told could ride in a Category 2 race, if any. Regardless, he said Young didn’t break any rules.“It’s allowed if I say it is,” Nowakowski said.That summer, Young rode in four races as a Category 2 rider, all at the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis. According to Major Taylor Velodrome USAC Track Category Upgrade Policy, a Category 3 rider will automatically upgrade to Category 2 with a minimum five race days and 25 points. The race results could not be found on the USA Cycling website, and Young could not be reached for comment.“Eric does not hold a pro license until he signs on the dotted line for a pro license,” Nowakowski said. “He hasn’t done anything shady behind the scenes. He’s good to go. The problem we have here is Eric is just too dog-gone good.”
(04/15/11 12:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Before the Indianapolis 500 had headsets, the pit crews had to find a way to communicate with their drivers, so they used signals. In the Little 500, headsets aren’t allowed. With 20,000 roaring fans, coaches have to find a quick way to relay information to their cyclists, so they use whiteboards. We compiled our favorites from the past races.Teter’s coach, Chris Wojtowich, gives his riders coded messages that change every year.During last year’s race, one of Teter’s codes was 219. Inside the code, the rider knew what lap she was on and how many laps were left before an exchange. Wojtowich tries to keep the codes simple so his riders don’t get one message confused with another.“On the video of last year’s race, one of the announcers said to another announcer, ‘Hey Jason, what does 219 mean? I’ve seen that on Teter’s board,’” Wojtowich recalled. “Jason said, ‘I have no idea what Woj is talking about half the time.’”Theta Chi’s coach Chuck Taylor has a totally different whiteboard style. Taylor said there’s no need for code. But there is a need for more than one colored dry erase marker.“I get a little creative with it,” Taylor said. “I might draw a happy face on the board or a thumbs up. Sometimes I write the guy’s girlfriend’s name on there. Give them a laugh and make them feel better and maybe they can get me another lap or two.”