Delta Zeta riding on in Birky's honor

Thursday, sitting on a couch in the Delta Zeta sorority, sophomore Amanda Marquet placed her right hand on her left forearm, just two inches above a green wristband with stitched pink letters that read "BIRKY."\n"It was surreal," she said. "We just kept questioning, not believing it. Twenty-one-year-olds don't just die for no reason."\nThe same wristband that adorned Marquet's arm will be her motivation today as she pedals around Bill Armstrong Stadium. Marquet is a member of Delta Zeta's Little 500 team, and in the wake of the death of sorority sister Nichole Birky, Marquet and her teammates have more to ride for than house pride this year.\nIn remembrance of Birky, team members will wear the green and pink wristbands during the race today.\n"It's incentive to keep going hard," said senior rider Gretchen Freytag. "When you're tired, look down at the wristband and remember that you're doing it for more than yourself."\nThey are riding in her honor.\nIn the stands, other house members will wear the wristbands and yellow shirts with Birky's initials -- NMB -- on the back.\nA joke about Chuck Norris is printed above Birky's initials, something Delta Zeta team members said Birky wanted on the shirts. The yellow shirts match the yellow and gray jerseys the team members will wear in the race.\n"It's a way to keep her alive," said Marquette, who is a member of Birky's pledge class. "That's one of the worst fears of the house is that she's going to be forgotten."\nBirky's family will attend the race and Delta Zeta plans to release green and pink balloons. Green and pink are the official colors of Delta Zeta and are the colors of the wristbands.\nLittle 500 Race Coordinator Lucas Calhoun said the race brings greek houses together, and situations like Delta Zeta's make houses more united.\n"It really makes all the people in a house realize how lucky they are and how fortunate enough they are to have each other around," Calhoun said. "Cycling in general, it's such a metaphor for life's uncertainty. You never know what's going to happen in life."\nTeam members said Little 500 was one of Birky's favorite times of the school year.\n"She just loved Little 5 week," said junior rider Jess Mattox, who is also in Birky's pledge class.\nMarquet said the week was Birky's "time to shine, socially."\n"I feel that she's up there, partying for us," she said.\nHer death, they said, put things in perspective.\n"Little 500 is not the most important thing," said sophomore rider Morgan McNeely. "There are more important things in the world."\nSuddenly, competing well in the race was not as important as they had thought a few months earlier.\n"It's just a race," Freytag said. "It doesn't mean anything in the long run"