Dodds House to race 50th Little 500

The Dodds House Little 500 team has perennially been the best residence hall team in the men's race, including a race victory in 1998. But its run of seven straight top 10 finishes was snapped last year when the team finished in 11th, after qualifying ninth.\nThis year, the Dodds team is looking to regain its form and add to its 25 top 10 finishes in 49 races. Dodds qualified seventh for the Little 500 this year, with a time of 2:35.096.\nSenior captain Tom Moore and senior Charlie Metzger are returning riders from the 2001 race, while junior Brad Davies competed in the 2000 event as a freshman. Dodds' lone rookie competitor in the race will be Craig Luekens. Freshman Raj Joseph and sophomore Tyler Christman also trained with the team, but will not be competing on race day.\nMoore believes the team this year is stronger than in recent years.\n"We had a pretty strong team last year, but I wouldn't say that our team was as many as four riders deep," Moore said. "This year we are really riding with four very strong riders. We are looking to have a much more successful year this year."\nThe Dodds team has already had a successful year, having won the Fall Cycling Championship Series and placing three riders in the top 14 for the Individual Time Trials. Luekens was the team's fastest ITT rider, placing third overall with a time of 2:26.31.\nLuekens thought the experience of his fellow riders has helped him prepare for what he will face on race day.\n"Earlier in the year, I was always looking for tips, and they would always help me out," Luekens said. "They are there to give tips and help out with how you can get better, because that kind of stuff is just intangible in a race like this."\nThe Dodds House has also won the last four Erickson All-Campus Championships as the housing unit that competes in the most in IU Student Foundation activities throughout the course of the year. Dodds once again leads the Erickson All-Campus Championship heading into Team Pursuit and the Little 500 race. Dodds has compiled 638 points, while Pi Kappa Phi sits in second place with 615 points.\nDavies hopes to win the Erickson Championship again, but he has his eyes set on race day.\n"It is always nice to win (the Erickson Championship)," Davies said. "But we definitely hope to win the race."\nThe Dodds team is coached by Glenn Spiczak, a 1986 graduate of IU and Dodds House alumnus. Spiczak is a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, but Davies said he works with the team on spring break, race day and some occasional series events. Spiczak was a member of the Dodds team in 1986, the last year the team failed to qualify for the race.\nMoore said Spiczak vowed after that to never let Dodds fail to qualify, and he has been the team's coach ever since.\n"In 1986, he was a senior and they dropped the exchange on the final qualifying attempt," Moore said. "He decided at that point that Dodds would never not qualify for a race again. There is actually a picture in our bike lounge of that dropped exchange that says, 'so that we will never forget.'"\nSpiczak won't be the only Dodds alumni in town for the Little 5 race though. Davies said the team often has many former Dodds House members come for the race.\n"On race day we will have alumni from 40 years ago show up," Davies said. "It is really nice to have them all here. They all buy a t-shirt on race day and support the team"