'Team Pursuit' finishes on-track events

Thursday night at the track brought injury upon insult at Team Pursuit as the women's final heat between Kappa Kappa Gamma and Team Athena was called because of a race-ending injury to Athena senior Allison Ware. No less than 15 minutes before, men's team Gafombi outraced defending champion Corleones in a battle of speed and bearing the weather to win the men's finals. Adrenaline appeared to be pumping and race faces were on between the two teams and their times reflected it. The Corleones improved by six seconds and Gafombi by a whopping 14 seconds. With the Little 500 series events now complete, women's teams have two weeks to prepare and men's have 15 days.\nThe bumps and the bruises\nThe featured women's heat between Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Kappa Gamma never happened Thursday.\nAlpha Chi Omega, who qualified second, withdrew from the event because of injuries to team members, so Kappa Kappa Gamma, who qualified third, raced against the clock for a time of 8:28.50 good enough for the finals against Team Athena. \n"We were really looking forward to doing it," Alpha Chi Omega sophomore Abby Coggeshall said. "Just from the circumstances, it was better for our team that we didn't."\nAthena out biked Alpha Xi Delta, 8:32.20 to 8:48.35, in the last heat before the finals, to pair against Kappa Kappa Gamma in the final heat of the event.\nMidway through the finals, Ware crashed onto the cinder track on the front straight away causing an eerie silence to settle over Bill Armstrong Stadium. The race was halted as paramedics quickly tended to Ware who was then transported by ambulance to Bloomington Hospital. The race was deemed complete at that time. \nIU Student Foundation assistant director and Little 500 coordinator Alex Ihnen said by the way she fell, her injury is presumably to her shoulder or collar bone. Kappa Kappa Gamma won by default, turning down an opportunity to finish the race. \nBut getting that far for Team Athena was an accomplishment in itself.\n"It was a pretty big thing (to get to the finals)," Athena senior Melissa Stenger said. "There aren't a whole lot of women's indepedent teams, so we represent a lot."\nWith the victory, Kappa Kappa Gamma sits atop the final Little 500 series events standings with 29 points -- a hefty 66 points ahead of second place Kappa Alpha Theta -- earning them the coveted white jersey. The series events are a combination of Individual Time Trials, Miss-N-Out and Team Pursuit, with the lowest number of total points winning. \nAnother powerful heat was between pole sitter Phi Mu, 8:52.87, and Kappa Alpha Theta, 8:32.56, who qualified sixth. This match-up previewed the strength of the first-third of the field, with Theta out racing Phi Mu by 20 seconds. \nTeter women rounded out the top five in fourth place in 8:35.44.\n'It's just a roll of the dice'\nCorleones rider senior Daniel Burns finished Team Pursuit in second place. The finish wasn't about who was better in Burns' eyes, but "just a roll of the dice."\nRiders over and over again have said one of the biggest factors in the final race is luck. Last night at Team Pursuit, luck was on Gafombi's side. The team has been lucky (or talented) from the beginning of the spring series events. Senior John Grant took first in Individual Time Trials and Miss-N-Out and the team beat out preliminary winner, The Corleones, in the final race. \nThe Corleones finished the preliminary heat with a time of 9:16.69 and Gafombi trailed with a time of 9:22.25. After their preliminary heat The Corleones were pleased with their efforts and optimistic about the final race. \n"I was out for a little revenge," Burns said. "I didn't do too well in ITTs and I was kinda pissed off. This is my favorite event because I am more of an endurance guy. I was really motivated for it."\nThe finals paired Gafombi and The Corleones, who have been fierce competition for each other through the past two years. Gafombi returns three riders from last year's second place team, while all four riders return to the 2002 Little 500 first place team. The riders may be competitors on the track, but off the track they don't see each other as competition.\n"We are all good friends," Grant said. "It was great to be apart of the finals with The Corleones."\nGafombi finished the race with a time of 9:08.32, only two seconds in front of The Corleones. Fiji, who won the pole position for the final race, took third place in the event with a preliminary time of 9:34.00. With the third place finish the team won first in the overall spring series events.\n"Overall it was pretty rewarding because we know we are a strong team out there and we have the talent," said senior Fiji rider Charlie Crouse. "We would like to have done better on some areas, but we know we are strong. It's a good feeling to win the series"