2009 review: Brown rides 70-plus laps as Pi Beta Phi wins 1st race

As Caroline Brown of Pi Beta Phi sprinted down the home stretch in Friday’s women’s Little 500 race, teammate Liz Mackey said she had confidence in Brown.

“I just knew she’d pull to the front and win the race for us,” Mackey said.

She did.

Pi Beta Phi won the race by about a bike length, and the hysteria began.

The Pi Beta Phi sisters and fans jumped the fence by their pit and rushed onto the track.

They cheered. They wept. And they danced around the track on their team’s victory lap, the first ever for Pi Beta Phi.

Brown, who rode more than 70 of the 100 laps during the race, said the final sprint was similar to Miss ’N Out, a spring series event that tests the sprinting skills of riders.

“You just make your move when you think it’s right,” Brown said. “I did it in the fourth turn and just gunned it for all I had. You don’t want to go through that line thinking you had more.”

As the Pi Beta Phi chants echoed across Bill Armstrong Stadium, riders from other teams praised Pi Beta Phi for what they called a surprising performance. While the sorority qualified sixth in the race, favorites such as quals winner Teter and spring series winner Kappa Alpha Theta received the majority of the attention on race day.

“They were under the radar, so no one was really expecting to watch for them,” said Teter captain Jackie Moeller. “They just did awesome. I’m really proud of them.”

Other teams, such as Athena, which qualified 21st and finished 10th, were also pleased with their race.

“We were just really smart with who we put into the race,” said Athena captain Olivia Yeagy. “We focused on everybody’s strength and weaknesses ... that’s really all. We rode our hearts out.”

The wind was perhaps the most noticeable factor in the race. While some riders said it wasn’t as bad as it looked, others said they thought the wind played a major role in their race-day strategy.

“The wind was really strong, and when you were out there by yourself it was really tough,” Moeller said. “We had to do shorter sets because we could only be out in the headwind for so long because it was just hurting our legs so much.”

While the wind was strong, Brown and her team asserted themselves as the strongest.
“We proved a lot of people wrong,” she said. “We rode a good race and a smart race.”
As for next year, preparation has already started, Mackey said.

“We’ll start training again tomorrow and see who has potential for next year,” she said on race day. “We’ll just train really hard.”