Windy weather plagues trials

Braving strong winds and cold weather is a hard task for any Little 500 rider. Braving it alone can be even harder.\nThe first series event of Little 500 was held Wednesday. Individual Time Trials (ITT) began at 4 p.m. and carried into the evening when the last riders took the track a little after 10 p.m. \nITT serves as a measurement for individual riders to judge their progress and personal performances without riding in a pack or worrying about bike exchanges with team members. For each heat, four riders race against the clock, each starting from a different corner of the track. The fastest individual time wins the event and seeds the riders for the next series event, Miss-N-Out.\nThe top-seeded positions will go to the winners -- rookie rider Luke Isenbarger, a senior who rides for The Corleones, and returning rider Jenn Wangerin, a junior riding for Roadrunners. Isenbarger won the men's event with a time of 2.25, and Wangerin won the women's in 2.39. The men's field was a close race; 45 out of 123 riders finished within 10 seconds of each other, as opposed to the 25 in close contention last year. \nSenior Matt Marketti of Phi Delta Theta, whose team won the pole in qualifications, finished second in the men's event. He finished in 2.25.42. Freshman Craig Luekens of Dodds House finished third with a time of 2.26.31.\nOn the women's side, senior Kristin Carpenter of Kappa Kappa Gamma finished second in 2.43, and Alpha Gamma Delta sophomore Corey Bitzer finished third in 2.44.06.\nIsenbarger said the individual accomplishment of his first-place finish in his rookie season boosted his confidence for the rest of the series.\n"Winning the whole thing wasn't what I expected," he said. "My goal was to make the top 10, and I would have been satisfied with that. I said a prayer right before I went and the guy upstairs helped me out with no wind during my race, but it picked up when I was done.\n"The whole team, the Corleones, finished in the top eight, so I hope we do well in the rest of the series events. The field is really close."\nKappa Kappa Gamma, which won the pole position in qualifications, had all four team members compete in the event. Sophomore Alison Edwards finished in the top 25. Many riders felt the conditions of the track slowed their times by a few seconds, which would not play a part in their preparation for the remainder of the series.\n"I felt like I could have gone a lot faster; I didn't feel real good out there," Edwards said. "Usually your performance in ITTs is pretty important, but the day of the race, it doesn't matter where you came in at ITTs.\n"It's a good indicator of who's ready and who's been trained well, but at the end of the day on the 19th, whoever wins wins. It doesn't matter what happened today."\nEarlier riders were not the only competitors competing against the clock and the weather conditions. The wind also added to the cold temperature that could have played a part in slow times. Junior Delta Delta Delta rider Kristine Ward rode in the eighth heat through a steady wind that she said slowed her time. Ward finished time trials in 3.01.75.\n"I think I rode OK," Ward said. "It was a little windy out, which slowed me down a bit, but I feel pretty good with what I did. (My time) will put me in a good perspective with how I am with all the other riders and force me to work harder. Running against the clock is hard, but four laps really isn't that much in the scheme of the entire race."\nThe second event of the series, Miss-N-Out, will be held Saturday at noon at Bill Armstrong Stadium. Miss-N-Out tests riders' pack-riding abilities in a race setting where the loser of each heat is eliminated. The riders race in heats of six to eight depending on results of the ITT. With each lap the last rider to cross the finish line is eliminated until two or three riders advance. The winning riders advance from preliminaries to quarterfinals to semifinals to the final race. \n"Miss-N-Out is all about strategy," IUSF assistant director and Little 500 coordinator Alex Ihnen said. "It's the closest thing the riders will come to a sprint finish until race day. It they ride smart and have good track position, they can do well. In ITT you find out who is the strongest, but in Miss-N-Out you combine strength and strategy in the best way"