Seniors leave question marks

As graduation day nears, seniors have begun thinking about the future outside of Bloomington. For the underclassmen who still have requirements to fill and credits to earn, college life is still a main priority. \nBut for Little 500 riders, the future of a team hinges on graduating seniors. Losing just one rider could hurt a team's chance to turn out a successful performance the next year.\nAfter Sigma Alpha Epsilon lost its IU charter in 2002, the team of riders registered as an independent team, The Corleones. The 2003 race marked the last time the 2002 championship team would ride. All four riders will graduate this year, leaving no one to carry on the tradition of the team.\n"I don't think The Corleones team will stick around," said senior Corleones rider Daniel Burns. "People were asking (senior Chris) Irk about it after the race. I don't think I'll see it through. If I would come back I would like to see it as an SAE team."\nOther teams are still uncertain about competing together next year. This year's winner, Gafombi, will lose seniors John Grant and Mike Rubin. The remaining riders, junior Jason Fowler and Brandon Hurey, will have to make a decision to either begin recruiting for two additional riders or move to another team. Gafombi, like The Corleones, have ridden the past two years without the backing of a fraternity and lack a pool of interested men to join the team.\nFor riders who are departing, the thought of coming back to Bloomington for the 2004 race without a team to cheer for is difficult. Grant said he's not worried about the team coming back next year, but it would be nice to see Gafombi back for a third year.\n"It would be nice to come back and see my team out there next year," Grant said. "If we were still riding for Beta (Theta Pi) it would be nice to come back and have your fraternity out there."\nOther teams have a tradition of a strong team, but losing valuable riders is still hard. Senior Kevin Vanes has ridden for Acacia for four years and finished his final race Saturday. Teammate senior Robert Allen said the team's strategy for the race was centered around Vanes. \n"Kevin Vanes, our captain, it's his last year here and our job was to get him to the end of the race in position to win and we did that. It just didn't go our way, but we had a great time," Allen said.\nOut of the 126 riders that participated in Little 500 this year, 36 are graduating seniors. IU Student Foundation assistant director and Little 500 coordinator Alex Ihnen said the group leaving this year is a special one.\n"It was all about competition this year," Ihnen said. "The guys trained hard and were really invested in the event. Everyone rode to their potential. The guys this year were a very special group of guys. They think they can come in and make a real difference on the race and they did that this year"