Phi Delta Theta claims third Little 500

Phi Delta Theta avoided wrecks and battled a surprising late-race charge by Teter to claim the 51st Men\'s Little 500 Saturday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nPhi Delta Theta took the lead from Teter on lap 190. Teter, which controlled the race from laps 162-190, finished second followed by Sigma Phi Epsilon. Teter and Sigma Phi Epsilon were the only two teams to finish on the lead lap with Phi Delta Theta.\nPhi Delta won the race with a time of 2:16:57. Junior Matt Marketti was on the bike for Phi Delta Theta when it crossed the finish line. Senior Josh Beatty rode the most laps for the team.\n\"This feels great,\" Beatty said after the race. \"This is what we\'ve been working for as a team for four years and it has been ongoing for about 50 years. It means the world to a lot of people and it means a lot to me.\"\nThe victory was Phi Delta Theta\'s third title and first since 1996. Phi Delta Theta\'s other win was in 1982. The team finished in 5th place last year and eighth in 1999.\nBeatty is the only rider remaining from the 1998 team, which failed to qualify for the race. Beatty has trained rigorously since the 1998 disappointment, and his work ethic resulted in him earning Rider of the Year honors in 2001. In addition to competing on the winning team, Beatty also won Miss-N-Out and Individual Time Trials, which are the two individual series events.\nAfter the race, members of Phi Delta Theta hoisted Beatty on top of a house-huddle during its victory celebration. \n\"This team is Josh Beatty,\" Phi Delta Theta coach Allen Smith said. \"He set the bar for all the others.\"\nBeatty was a major contributor to Phi Delta Theta decreasing the more than 100-meter lead Teter had on the field. Beatty got on the bike during lap 178 when Teter had more than a five-second lead on Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Phi Epsilon.\n\"If we had a Miss-N-Out winner and a future Hall-of-Famer it might have been a picture perfect finish,\" Teter senior David Eaton said. \nPhi Delta Theta\'s rookies, junior Brian Drummy and junior Ryan Hamilton, were a big reason the team won. Both riders improved steadily throughout the Little 500 season and unlike most teams, Phi Delta Theta didn\'t lose ground when it\'s top two riders - Beatty and Marketti - weren\'t on the track.\n\"They were awesome,\" Beatty said of Hamilton and Drummy. \nWhile Phi Delta Theta, Teter and Sigma Phi Epsilon were in contention most of the race, some of the other favorites encountered problems.\nCutters, the 2000 champions, had more than 20 seconds of penalties and fell three times. Cutters finished the race in seventh place.\nPhi Gamma Delta, the pole-sitter, wrecked early in the race and had a 10-second penalty for creeping on the field during a yellow flag after the crash. The team also had mechanical problems and finished 13th. The last time Fiji finished out of the top five was in 1993.\nDelta Chi and Chi Phi were in contention most of the race until they were involved in a wreck with less than 30 laps remaining. Delta Chi finished fifth and Chi Phi recorded a sixth-place finish.\n\"I feel bad for those teams,\" Marketti said. \"It\'s horrible to go out that way. Part of the race is luck."