5th place women's ITT finisher takes 1st place at Miss-N-Out

It looked like a pretty typical day Saturday at Miss-N-Out, but all it took was a broken spoke, some gusts of winds and a pair of teammates in the final sprint to get things pretty shaken up.\nJunior Abby Cooper of Bella Veloce found herself in that final sprint, sandwiched between two Kappa Alpha Theta riders -- senior Liz Milne in front and senior Nicole Vincent in back. Cooper set idly behind the Individual Time Trials record holder Milne the entire time, waiting until about halfway through the final lap to pull out and began vying for position.\n"It's not good to pool the whole time, and unfortunately, Liz got stuck in that position." Cooper said. "I knew she would pool, and I knew she was a really good wheel."\nCooper rounded the final turn about a bicycle's length ahead, and Milne, who lead the entire race, never made up the ground, giving Cooper the win. Milne took second and Vincent finished third.\n"I didn't mind being up front actually because I felt like I had more control over what goes on," Milne said. "Abby's a really strong rider -- she kind of sat in and had a really good race strategy."\nCooper won the race as a 5-seed after placing 5th at Wednesday's ITTs.\nPrior to the final lap theatrics, three other riders made up the finals.\nKappa Kappa Gamma senior Kelsey Cooper was the only Kappa rider in the finals. She was the third and final rider eliminated, giving her fourth place.\nSenior Mia Dragan of Teter was the second rider eliminated, garnering a fifth place finish.\nCooper's win aside, the most surprising performance of the day might have come from Alpha Omnicron Pi senior Shauna Santare. Santare fought to her sixth-place finish as the 24-seed, an ITT finishing that didn't even grant her the top spot in her original heat.\n"I was very surprised -- I really didn't think I would even make it out of the second round," Santare said. "I felt a little out of my league, to be honest with you."\nAbsent from the finals was the No. 3 Kappa senior Meredith Horner, who made it only to the semifinals after suffering a broken spoke, causing her to be eliminated early from her from her semifinal heat.\n"It's a really strong women's field," Horner said. "Both the semifinal heats had a lot of strong riders in them."\nCooper agreed.\n"(This year's field is) a lot faster," Cooper said. "The field here is really, really talented. Every collegiate road race we go to, IU completely dominates. I have a lot respect for everyone here."\nAnd as the riders stepped it up this year, Mother Nature decided to step it up this year as well, relentlessly throwing wind gusts at the riders.\nBut fortunately, the weather had little effect on those that train every day no matter what.\n"My teammate Katy (Ligler) and I, we ride every day," Cooper said. "Sometimes (in the wind) we are like, 'Man this sucks, but if it happens on the track we're going to be all right because we're experiencing it.'"\n-- Contact Staff Writer Andy Romey at aromey@indiana.edu.