When Brooke Hannon finished her last lap at individual time trials Wednesday night, hardly anyone batted an eye. Instead, everyone zoned in on the track, where the most anticipated men’s heat and women’s heat were about to take place in what is referred to as the “power hour.”
At the time, most people expected the fastest women’s time to come from the heat at 9 p.m., which featured four of the top five returning riders from last year’s ITTs. However, nearly three hours later, the last women’s heat was over, and Hannon’s name was atop the leaderboard.
With a time of 2:36.553 Hannon barely edged out Grace Bennett of Kappa Alpha Theta, who clocked in less than two tenths of a second later at 2:36.737. Rachel Brown of Kappa Alpha Theta with 2:37.820, Ali Oppel of Alpha Omicron Pi with 2:38.117 and Megan Huibregtse of SKI with 2:38.287 rounded out the top five.
Hannon, a senior who rides for Melanzana, said her goal going into the night was to post a time below 2:40. She credited her success to her ability to tune out her surroundings and really focus on pushing herself as hard as possible.
“In all honesty, my mind is completely clear when I go,” Hannon said. “I just ignore everyone and everything.”
While some riders struggle with choosing a strategy for ITTs, Hannon said she knew exactly what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it.
“There’s no reason and there’s no need to pace yourself in this event,” Hannon said. “You just have to give 100 percent, meaning full physical and mental effort, for every single lap. If you pace yourself, you will go slow.”
Melanzana had two other riders place in the top 30 — Amelia Anderson at 28 and Melissa Ford at 29. Kappa Alpha Theta, Delta Gamma and Alpha Omicron Pi all placed five riders in the top 30. Phi Mu was right behind them with four.
Lizzie Schack, a sophomore rider for Phi Mu, posted a time of 2:44.803, which earned her 15th place on the night. She said her goal for ITTs was to beat her time from last year, which she did by a whopping 20 seconds.
Unlike most riders, who are usually gasping for breath as they finish their last lap, Schack could not stop laughing and had a beaming smile across her face. After managing to get her laughter in check, she attributed her accomplishment to all the hard training she has put in since last year’s race.
“I’ve been training this whole entire past year, since a week after the race last year,” Schack said. “I think that has definitely helped.”
With ITTs officially in the books, riders are now preparing for the second spring series event, Miss N Out, which will begin at noon this Saturday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
Miss N Out is different from ITTs in that riders start at the same spot on the track and compete directly with one another. Generally, there are six to eight riders in each heat. The event begins with a pace lap, and in every subsequent lap the last rider to have his or her front tire cross the finish line is eliminated.
The top three riders from each first round heat advance to the next round. Every round thereafter, two riders advance until the semifinal heat when three riders advance. The men’s and women’s final heats will each include six riders.
As last year’s champion, Tabitha Sherwood, graduated, a new winner is guaranteed this year.
Hannon will look to continue her early spring series success and take the title. Delta Gamma’s Kristen Bignal, who finished second last year, will look to counter Hannon. Brown, Oppel and Huibregtse, who finished third, fifth and sixth last year, respectively, will also be contenders.
