Teams prepare for quals, 8 men’s teams to be cut

Teams will be racing against the clock and possibly the weather Saturday as they attempt to qualify for the upcoming Little 500 races.

In total, 41 men’s teams and 31 women’s teams plan to run a four-lap solo qualification attempt at Bill Armstrong Stadium all day Saturday.

With 33 spots available in each race, every women’s team will qualify, but eight men’s teams will be eliminated from the 59th annual race.

Because weather forecasts call for rain and the week’s coldest temperatures, riders are expecting an unpredictable day.

“The thing with quals is, it is all luck with the weather and teams’ exchanges,” senior Teter rider Jackie Moeller said. “So you kind of take what you get.”

“You just cross your fingers, I guess,” added sophomore teammate Caitlin Van Kooten.

Each team has three attempts to qualify, allowing room for a bad exchange or an accident during an early attempt.

But the pressure to make the race remains for the men.

“It’s a very butterfly type of thing,” Black Key Bulls sophomore Jordan Bailey said. “I’ve been really worried about it this week – it’s one of those things where so much can go wrong. You just have to be on your game that day.”

Teams will be fighting for the pole position, the top starting position.

On the women’s side, Teter will be looking for its third consecutive pole, but team members said that is not their ultimate goal. Because they did not win the 2007 or 2008 races from the pole, team members simply hope to be in a good position for the race this year.

“It’s never actually been our priority to be pole,” Moeller said. “It’s just kind of worked out that it happened. It’s not something we’re aiming for. If it happens, it happens.”

Defending women’s race champion Delta Gamma has similar goals: to qualify in the top three rows. Team members also said there is added pressure to the first-place team when the green flag waves.

“First place in quals is not first place on race day,” Delta Gamma senior Kristina Heath said.

Besides Delta Gamma and Teter, other women’s teams expected to compete for the front spots include Alpha Gamma Delta, Kappa Delta, Wing It and Kappa Alpha Theta.

Some of the men’s teams share the same opinion about the importance of the pole.
Last year, the Cutters won the race but did not qualify in the top 10.

Sigma Alpha Mu was in first place on qualifications day but finished the race 14th.
Favorites to take the men’s pole include the Black Key Bulls, Cutters, Delta Tau
Delta, Gray Goat Cycling and Alpha Tau Omega.

The Black Key Bulls team qualified 17th in 2008 but made up most of the positions within the first few laps.

Bailey said his team still wants to be closer to the top, if not the pole.

“It’s always one of those things that in the first 10 laps, there is going to be a crash,” Bailey said. “You want to stay out of that, and that’s why you want to be as far to the
front as possible.”