It’s called the “power hour.”
People in the Little 500 community have given that nickname to the heats after 8 p.m. in the Individual Time Trials. Those heats were full of veterans who had top ITT times in the past, and on Wednesday night, it lived up to the hype.
Teter’s Lauren Britt topped the women’s field with a time of 2:36.90 in heat 61, while Black Key Bull’s Xavier Martinez won his second ITT in a loaded heat 58 with a time of 2:22.09.
Heat 57 was the first scheduled at 8 p.m. and produced some of the fastest women’s times. The entire heat – Caitlin Kamplain of Theta Phi Alpha, Hanna Coppens and Audrey Morlan of Delta Gamma, and Erin Adair of Alpha Gamma Delta – all placed within the top 20.
The next heat also saw some of the best men’s times of the day.
Martinez, Cutters' Noble Guyon and Tom Settle of Sigma Phi Epsilon all finished within the top 10. Johnathan Jaggard of Gafombi barely missed out on the top 10 with an 11th-place standing. Guyon finished second overall in the standings as Martinez beat him out by less than a second.
Martinez made a little bit of a slide on the first lap but was able to recover and keep up with Guyon.
“Obviously going into an ITT heat like that where it’s Tom, Noble and Johnathan, you know the competition is going to be stiff, not only throughout the whole field but in that specific heat,” Martinez said. “Going in, the mindset is just attack, attack, attack. Third lap should be the fastest while the last lap should take care of itself.”
There were other impressive women’s times throughout the day, and after claiming the top spot in qualifications last weekend, SKI showed off the depth of its team with six riders finishing in the top 30.
“It felt hard,” Ivy Moore of SKI said. “I don’t feel like I had my best night, but I did give it my all, and that’s what I can expect with myself.”
Teter held the top women’s spot for most of the day as Erika Wilson remained in the lead until heat 57 with Kamplain, Coppens and Morlan overtook the top three spots. Along with Coppens and Morlan, Laurie Bignal and Katherine Free also finished within the top 20 for Delta Gamma.
The three team’s that dominated the men’s side overall were Cutters, Black Key Bulls and Gray Goat. Robert Strobel of BKB, William Huibregtse of Cutters, Logan Tisdale and Nicholas Lazaroae of Gray Goat all finished within the top 10 to join Martinez and Guyon.
There weren’t any record-breaking performances like last year, but there was much better weather with the sun out most of the day. Miss N Out this weekend could provide worse weather than what ITTs and qualifications provided.
The standings and results from ITTs will be used to decide the heat placement of riders for Miss N Out this weekend. According to Weather.com, there’s an 80 percent chance of thunder storms Saturday. If Miss N Out is rained out, it will take place Sunday.
Editor's Note: Noble Guyon has worked for the Indiana Daily Student.
