Black Key Bulls, Kappa Delta win Team Pursuit

If Team Pursuit foreshadows the upcoming Little 500, then event winners Black Key Bulls and Kappa Delta might feel good about their chances.

Both teams won their Team Pursuit final Saturday night by significant margins.
For Kappa Delta, the win came without one of the team’s top riders.

With senior Julie Panzica watching from the sidelines because of injury, her teammates defeated Kappa Alpha Theta with a 12-lap time of 8:05.84, just two seconds behind the track record.

On the men’s side, the Black Key Bulls barely missed the nine-minute mark in their 15-lap final, posting a 9:00.89, more than seven seconds faster than the second-place Cutters.

Team Pursuit features two teams on opposite ends of the track, with the riders taking a Le Mans-style start by running to their bikes from the infield at the gun.

The two men’s teams race 15 laps, while the women’s teams race 12. Times are taken from the third finisher on each team.

As the only team-based event in the spring series, the Team Pursuit often signifies which teams will do well on race day. Since 2003, all but one of the men’s and women’s Team Pursuit winners have finished in the top five in the race.

Kappa Delta sophomore Katie LaPlant said winning the event gives her team confidence going into Friday’s race because it showcased her team’s depth.

“It’s your whole team working together and making sure you don’t lose anybody,” LaPlant said.

Despite the team’s confidence, Kappa Delta’s depth might be tested because of tendinitis in Panzica’s right knee. Panzica, 26th in the Individual Time Trials, said she has altered her training to work with her knee, but said she felt confident she would be 100 percent healthy on race day.

Kappa Alpha Theta earned the spring series white jersey with its second-place finish Saturday night. The jersey goes to the team with the top overall performance in the Individual Time Trials, Miss ’N Out and Team Pursuit events.

Phi Gamma Delta won the men’s white jersey with a fourth-place finish Saturday.

“Team Pursuit is definitely our strongest event,” Kappa Alpha Theta junior Erin Axley said. “We have the endurance to be able to do well in this event, so it’s really fun to actually do it and have it go well for us.”

For the men, the Black Key Bulls dominated the night. In the preliminary heat, the team made up the entire half-lap and passed opponent Acacia, the ninth-place finishers. The Black Key Bulls led start-to-finish in the final heat against the Cutters.

“I don’t know if it means that much in terms of how fast we are because it’s so unique,” Black Key Bulls sophomore Ren-Jay Shei said. “But it’s definitely a good mental boost.”

As for missing the nine-minute mark – “I’ll take the blame for it,” he said, laughing.

Behind the Black Key Bulls and the Cutters, pole-winners Phi Delta Theta finished third, followed by FIJI and Team Major Taylor. Alpha Gamma Delta, Wing It and Kappa Kappa Gamma rounded out the women’s top five.