University Athletics Club sweeps Little Fifty race

It started as an idea to get IU runners to train together and ended with this year's men's and women's Little Fifty champions.\nThe University Athletics Club, a new running group started this year, grabbed most of the medals at Billy Hayes Track Saturday afternoon, placing teams first and second in the men's race and first and fourth in the women's.\nAlthough Sigma Chi and Undisputed hung around for the first 12 laps of the men's competition, UAC-Cream and UAC-Crimson pulled away from the field during laps 12 through 20 of the men's race.\nCrimson grabbed the lead on lap 17, but Cream snatched the lead back on lap 20.\nDespite several charges by UAC-Crimson in the last 30 laps in which runners on the squad split sub-65 second laps to try and catch up, UAC-Cream never surrendered its lead and held off its University Athletics Club counterparts to take the title in 56 minutes, 40 seconds. UAC-Cream's time was almost two full minutes better than last year's winning time of 58:37, posted by Phi Gamma Delta.\n"We all really, really wanted it today," said senior Brian Kelley.\nCrimson finished second with a time of 56:48.\n"There's a little bit of rivalry between us," said UAC-Cream's junior Ben Bartley. "(Crimson's) in shape, we are more speed. It was just a matter of holding them off."\nThe men's third-place team, One-Eight-Seven, took an interesting approach to the race. Instead of going out with the front-runners, they began in 23rd place, then moved up to 9th after 30 laps and eventually were able to work their way up to finish third.\n"The race unfolded exactly how we were planning on," said senior Adam Depew. "We knew the race would go out real fast, so we stayed back and worked our way up." \nSophomore Blake Roebuck led their come-back, as he rattled off 65-second laps to help One-Eight-Seven get into medal contention.\nIn the women's race, UAC-Cobra Chi took the crown, beating 2nd place Alpha Phi.\nThe women of Alpha Phi took the early lead, but Cobra Chi overtook and eventually lapped them.\n"We're happy with how it went," said Cobra Chi freshman Megan Foreman. "I was mentally breaking down at the beginning because I was going against their best runner. But my teammates yelled 'Keep your head up, they're dying!' They helped me out a lot."\nIn Qualifications, sophomore Jacqui Davis, a marathon runner, ran both the first and last leg of the 4x800 relay to help her team qualify an impressive second. \n"We tried to finish as well as we qualified, but having only three people, we were pleased to finish fourth," said sophomore Kati Bennett.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ryan Corazza at rcorazza@indiana.edu.