The Little 500 spring series concluded Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium with its final event, team pursuit. High winds affected riders throughout the day, but by the evening things had settled and the fastest times were posted in the final heats.
Delta Gamma knocked off Kappa Alpha Theta in the women’s championship heat, and Black Key Bulls took down surprise finalist Christian Student Fellowship in the final men’s heat.
Black Key Bulls junior Kevin Mangel said the wind made it difficult to post strong times relative to past years but downplayed its effects on the competition aspect of the event because every team had to deal with it.
“Everyone was up against the same conditions,” Mangel said. “There were a couple big gusts here and there, but ultimately everyone was riding in the same conditions.”
In the women’s preliminary rounds, heat 18 pitted the two powerhouses, Kappa Alpha Theta and Delta Gamma, against one another.
Kappa Alpha Theta dropped a time of 8:37.65, the fastest preliminary time of the day, and Delta Gamma finished with the second fastest time at 8:40.24 to set up a rematch with Kappa Alpha Theta in the final.
SKI (8:48.45), Phi Mu (8:48.58) and Alpha Chi Omega (8:54.59) rounded out the top five. Alpha Gamma Delta (8:58.87) was the only other team to finish in less than nine minutes.
On the men’s side, the big surprise in the preliminary round came when CSF delivered a time of 9:39.62 in one of the final heats of the day. CSF’s time was good enough to put itself in second place behind Black Key Bulls’ time of 9:25.99.
CSF men’s senior rider Michael Lee said making the championship was a once-in-a-lifetime event for him and his teammates. Despite a short recovery time between its first heat and the championship heat, CSF improved its time to 9:35.03 in the championship heat.
It wasn’t enough to defeat the Black Key Bulls, who also improved their time in the championship heat by winning with an official time of 9:05.12. Despite the loss, CSF riders said they were happy to make the final heat — a feat they did not expect to accomplish coming into the day.
“This was the first time CSF has made it to the finals, and these were two of the fastest times that we’ve ever had as a team,” Lee said. “It’s something we didn’t imagine happening but when happened it felt unreal.”
Before the women’s championship heat kicked off around 9:10 p.m., the wind had died down considerably from its previous 20-mile-per-hour level. Although Kappa Alpha Theta finished ahead of Delta Gamma in the first matchup, sophomore rider Laurie Bignal of Delta Gamma said that didn’t intimidate her team.
“We told ourselves that Theta was as tired as we were, so we knew to go in mentally strong because we were both physically tired,” Bignal said.
Delta Gamma came out with a good start on the first four laps of the final, but Kappa Alpha Theta gained some considerable ground, and the two teams were neck and neck by lap seven. It didn’t last long, though, and after Kappa Alpha Theta dropped a rider on the eighth lap, it couldn’t keep up with Delta Gamma, which finished with a time of 8:08.37. Kappa Alpha Theta came in about a second behind at 8:09.31.
With the conclusion of spring series, both Bignal and Mangel said their teams are now focused solely on the race after winning the final spring series event.
Bignal said her team’s workouts going forward will be based less on intensity and more on keeping the riders’ bodies fresh.
“We are first and foremost making sure we’re healthy,” Bignal said. “Taking lots of time for ourselves to stretch, drinking water and sleeping enough each night. Our training plan is not too hard these next two weeks. We want to rest our legs and make sure we’re not tired for the race.”
