Team Pursuit last series event before running of Little 500

Broken records and America's most famous Little 500 team headlined Thursday night's Team Pursuit in a battle of the Independents versus the Greeks.\nThe finals of what is the last Little 500 series event included what could be a preview of the front stretch come race weekend.\nTeter women held off pole sitter Kappa Kappa Gamma for the women's Team Pursuit title with a time of 8 minutes and 3.86 seconds -- breaking the record Teter set in their preliminary run of 8:04.75, which bettered Alpha Chi Omega's 1998 record of 8:05.38.\nIn the men's final, behind the chanting of Cut-ters from the team's faithful circling the track, Cutters defeated Phi Gamma Delta to take home the men's title. \n"I'm hurting a lot," Cutters senior Jason Fowler said minutes after his team won. "It was the most painful nine minutes and 16 seconds of my life ... from right after the first lap it was pretty painful."\nCutters crossed the finish line in 9:14.54 -- over a second and a half faster than Phi Gamma Delta, who took 9:16.05 to finish its 15 laps.\n"We were going neck and neck with them the whole time," Fowler said.\nTeter, who has emerged as a favorite in the April 23 women's race, was led by iron-woman senior Bri Kovac, who led her team for most of the 12 laps Thursday night, leading them to victory and the record.\n"We were really excited," Kovac said. "Our goal was we wanted to break it with all four, and we did it, so we're really happy,"\nKovac said communicating on the track was a key to cutting the distance between them and the strong Kappa team. \n"I think we have tried and been working on communicating while we're riding," Kovac said. "I think this time, especially, we talked a lot better than we did the last time, so I think our communication was a big factor."\nKappa was without junior Meredith Horner, who suffered an asthma attack during the teams preliminary run. She was rushed to the hospital but returned to the track with her team for the finals. \nHorner said she is excited for next week's race.\n"I'm really looking forward to it," Horner said. "It's something that I've been thinking about all year, since last year, so hopefully, it'll go our way."\nWith the races less than two weeks away and the series events completed, teams are now looking forward to winding down their workouts in preparation for the big day.\n"Now that the series events are over, we're focused on the race," Fowler said. "We'll probably get in one more hard workout his weekend and start to taper, start doing strategy and start thinking about the race and get more and more focused, and just get ready for next Saturday."\n-- Contact sports editor Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu.