A jolt of energy has once again shocked Indiana University’s campus as anticipation grows for the “World’s greatest college weekend.” The Little 500 qualifiers competed on Saturday for placements in preparation for the April races.
This marks the beginning of a month-long process of time trials that concludes with a 50-mile men’s race and 25-mile women’s race on April 21-22.
The weekend’s qualifiers on the men’s side were, in order:
1. Cutters
2. Sigma Phi Epsilon
3. Sigma Alpha Epsilon
4. Alpha Kappa Psi
5. Phi Kappa Psi
6. Phi Gamma Delta
7. Chi Phi
8. Cinzano
9. Human Wheels
10. Alpha Sigma Phi
11. Delta Tau Delta
12. Pi Kappa Alpha
13. Alpha Kappa Lambda
14. Chi Alpha
15. Gray Goat
16. Ghost Cycling
17. Phi Sigma Kappa
18. Novus
19. CSF Cycling
20. Beta Sigma Psi
21. Sigma Nu
22. 3PH Cycling
23. Delta Sigma Pi
24. Lambda Chi Alpha
25. Forest Cycling
26. Phi Delta Theta
27. Evans Scholars
28. Tau Epsilon Phi
29. IUDM cycling
30. Bears
31. Wild Aces Cycling
32. Army Cycling
33. Beta Theta Pi
For the women’s group, the qualifiers were, in order:
1. Alpha Chi Omega
2. Teter
3. Kappa Alpha Theta
4. Independent Council
5. Kappa Delta
6. Alpha Gamma Delta
7. Delta Gamma
8. Kappa Kappa Gamma
9. CSF Cycling
10. Theta Phi Alpha
11. SKI
12. Novus
13. Melanzana Cycling
14. Cru Cycling
15. RideON Cycling
16. Phi Gamma Nu
17. Delta Zeta
18. Alpha Omicron Pi
19. Gamma Phi Beta
20. Chi Omega
21. Bison Cycling
22. Phi Mu
23. Sigma Kappa
24. Alpha Sigma Alpha
25. Alpha Delta Pi
26. Alpha Epsilon Phi
27. Sigma Delta Tau
The qualifiers consisted of a four-lap time trial featuring a bike transfer between teammates at the conclusion of every lap. The bikers must pass the bike inside of a designated transfer zone, which became the main area of difficulty for the bikers to do in an efficient manner. Failure to transfer would result in a fault and a restart. However, teams had three chances to successfully complete the trial, leading to all but five men’s teams qualifying, and all of the women’s teams qualifying.
Leading the men’s heat was Cutters with a time of 2:26.549. Cutters is an experienced group, with multiple bikers previously competing in the event several times. Senior
Torin Kray-Mawhorr talked about remaining composed and building off such a successful qualifier.
“It’s all about mentality from here on out,” Kray-Mawhorr said after the time trials. “You don’t get much faster from this time forward, so it’s all about honing in your skills and making sure you’re calm and composed come race day.”
Cutters’ top placement in qualifiers gives themselves elite poll position for Little 500 as they look to add another win to their prestigious record book, which includes 14 wins since 1984, with their most recent win in 2019.
On the women’s side, Alpha Chi Omega walked away with the fastest time at 2:54.551, followed by Teter with the second fastest time of 2:55:771 and Kappa Alpha Theta with 2:59.22.
With many bikers losing two years of the event due to COVID-19, many participants were excited to get their first chance to finally compete in the event.
“I’ve been training for four years, and I’ve never been able to have a race with covid and going abroad,” Theta Phi Alpha senior Marianna Toljan said. “Being able to actually qualify and put our best foot forward for the race is really exciting.”
Theta Phi Alpha junior Riley Shorter added how special it was to place in the top 10 after graduating most of their team.
“Before quals, we were hopeful but not sure how we were gonna compare after rebuilding the team, but within top 10 finish in qualifications is definitely exciting.” Shorter said.
With razor-thin margins between many of the teams, including 3 teams in the men’s top ten separated by less than .3 seconds, it appears the 2023 Little 500 will be anyone’s race for the taking.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated the top three times for the women's qualifying races due to a mistake made in the editing process in addition to misstating the number of wins in Cutters' history.
