Wrecks affect riders, race day

While Friday's women's Little 500 at Bill Armstrong Stadium wasn't an accident-plagued event, the few wrecks that did occur contributed to the outcome of the race. \nThe 14th running of the women's event stayed under green flag conditions for only six laps, until a six-team pile-up slowed the race for four caution laps. Five of the teams involved were able to get back on their bikes or walk away, but Alpha Phi junior Jennifer Schaffer lie in the middle of the track, unconscious. \nSchaffer was in the middle of a 15-bike pack going through the track's first turn, when wheels touched, sending her crashing to the black cinder track. While the other five teams' riders were able to walk off the track, Schaffer was knocked unconscious and had to be removed via a stretcher. The paramedics on scene provided oxygen and put a neck brace on Schaffer as they rushed her to an trackside ambulance.\nMost riders visit the infield medical tent after a wreck, but the paramedic on the scene said they weren't exactly sure how badly Schaffer was hurt, only that she was being taken straight to the hospital. Schaffer suffered fractures to her wrist and pelvis.\nAlpha Phi continued with three riders and finished in the same placed they had started, 15th, five laps behind the race champion Roadrunners.\nAfter the early caution period, the race remained green, allowing Delta Gamma, Roadruners, Kappa Alpha Theta, Alpha Gamma Delta and Kappa Delta to break away from the rest of the field, leaving only five teams remaining on the lead lap with 40 laps to go. But it was a team that was a lap down that would ruin the chances for one of the lead five to take the checkered flag.\nOn the 60th lap, Ashton freshman Jennifer Schalk was slowed when a rider was moving slower then the rest of the field between Turns 3 and 4. Schalk said a rider in front of her came up on the slower rider too fast, touching wheels and crashing into Schalk. Schalk went to the cinders, collecting front runner Delta Gamma in the malay. DG went a lap down to the leaders, ending their bid for the win.\nSchalk said she wasn't sure who started the accident.\n"Some(one) was pretending like she was 3 years old, learning how to ride a bike," Schalk said. "I don't know what she was doing, because there was no pack. She wasn't coming out of a pack. I have no clue. I think she just needed to learn how to ride a bike."\nSenior Lauren Naset was riding for DG when she was collected in the wreck. Although she walked away, her teammate junior Kelly Geiger said Naset doesn't remember anything about the accident and was too lightheaded to continue in the race. \nGeiger expressed her frustration after going from a contender for the win to two laps down from the leaders.\n"You go from leading the pack at times, pulling the pack, to a lap behind, that's the most frustrating thing in the world," Geiger said. "Last year, we went down in the pack and the whole race we chased and chased and chased, so we've been there before. We were going to try and do it again, but we couldn't catch (the leaders) this year."\nDelta Gamma completed the last 40 laps of the race, finishing eighth.\nEarlier in the Little 500 season, teams were complaining about poor track conditions with ruts and loose cinders causing slow times and frequent accidents, such as team pursuit where two teams left with broken collar bones.\nSenior Krissy Johnson of the runner-up Thetas said that while conditions were poor earlier in the spring, the track had improved greatly since qualifications, limiting the amount of wrecks in the 100-lap event. \n"The rain has helped improve the conditions," Johnson said. "They got rid of all the ruts, so it was pretty nice today"