UPDATE: Kappa Delta wins women's Little 500

As the cyclists for Kappa Delta drove from place to place during their spring-break training trip, a photo from the finish of last year’s Little 500 hung in their car. The photo shows then-Kappa Delta senior Lauren Ziemba crossing the finish line a mere inches behind Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Jess Sapp. And at the bottom their coach wrote “2007 will be different. Expect to win.”\nAfter making a break from the pack at about the 60th lap, Kappa Delta cruised to its first Little 500 championship Friday afternoon. Kappa Delta beat out second-place Teter by three-fourths of a lap. \n“We wanted to win it early, and we did,” said Kappa Delta’s Lauren Reynolds. \nAfter a series of accidents that slowed the pack down during the middle of the race, senior Lindsey Manck broke away from the pack and sped up to give her team breathing room for an upcoming exchange. That maneuver, called a burnout, gives the team a cushion so when the new rider takes over she doesn’t have to make up a lot of ground. \nBut when Manck pulled away, she and coach Norm Houze noticed no other team was paying attention.\n“I really expected more people to follow, but nobody followed,” Manck said “We said, ‘OK, we’re going.’ And we weren’t going to look back.”\nWithin one lap, Kappa Delta developed a five-second lead on the next fastest team. Even with Manck off the bike, the team increased its lead. By lap 71 it was up by a quarter lap. By lap 80 the lead was a half lap. \nThe win is Kappa Delta’s first ever Little 500 championship, and it is the third sorority to win the race. \nTeter out-sprinted Kappa Alpha Theta for second place. Cycledelics and Kappa Kappa Gamma rounded out the top-five. \nRead Monday’s Indiana Daily Student for more coverage of Kappa Delta’s win and other women’s and men’s Little 500 content.