Former Columbus athletes continue to leave their mark on the historic Little 500 bike race that happens every April at Indiana University.
A number of Columbus natives participate in the race each year, and the city has been represented well in the past two women’s races. Last weekend, Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority has won the Little 500 for the second consecutive year after crossing the finish line first, making former Columbus North distance runner and IU senior Sydney Keaton a two-time champion. Former North soccer player and IU junior Laura Anne Watanabe also raced for the Theta team this year.
Watanabe entered college thinking she was leaving her athletic life in high school. She joined the Thetas as a college freshman and soon realized that she missed that feeling of having a team working toward a competitive goal. It wasn’t until she watched her first Little 500 race that same year when she got introduced to something that could feed her competitive nature.
“I went to a race my freshman year, and I really enjoyed it,” Watanabe said. “At the time a senior on the team (Evelyn Malcomb) was a rider, and she just made it sound like a really great thing, and I wanted to join.”
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Watanabe joined the team and continued to train. Teams train the entire summer and fall leading into the the race. Bikers sometimes will try to participate in other races during the summer to prepare, also. Watanabe wasn’t a rider last year, but she made sure to make the best of her first Little 500 this year.
Watanabe was the leadoff leg of the 100-lap race that lasted about an-hour-and-15 minutes. All of the preparation in the world couldn’t stop her legs from shaking with nerves just moments before the race started.
“You start training in the summer. You train all fall and winter just for this one race,” Watanabe said. “It definitely puts a lot of pressure on you.”
Usually, teams will have their distance riders start the race and save it’s sprinter until the end, and Watanabe was the Thetas’ distance rider. There isn’t a predetermined number of laps that each rider has to ride as long as there are at least five exchanges for every team. Watanabe raced 18 laps in her first set and then another 16 laps during her second set.
Watanabe said she and the other riders would have liked the opportunity to break away from the pack because winning solo causes a lot less anxiety, but things didn’t work out that way.
About 13 teams were still in contention for podium spots during the final sprint. The Thetas managed to hold off all the other teams.
Former North soccer player and IU junior Lauren Britt helped give her team a third-place finish. Britt was the sprinter for the Teter Residence Hall team. She took over around Lap 15 and raced her first set of laps and then didn’t get back in until near the end as the closer.
“I got to actually cross the finish line, which was a really cool experience for me and my team,” Britt said. “That was how we wanted it to go, so it was pretty unique that our strategy is what actually happened because when you put you strategy to practice, something usually goes wrong.”
Former Columbus East track athlete and IU senior Chase Wischmeier, along with North graduate and IU junior Kinsey Allen were the other two Columbus residents racing for Teter. Teter usually has a high number of riders that are from Columbus, which is why Britt decided to join it as opposed to someplace else.
“It’s been a lot of fun getting into the Little 5 community at IU because there has been a lot of students that come from Columbus that find themselves involved in the Little 500,” Britt said. “I felt I had a sub-community of people from Columbus among all of the other people who do Little 5 with me.”
Many of the bike riders from Columbus are former athletes, and Britt gives a lot of credit to the local coaches as to why Columbus natives tend to do so well in the Little 500.
“It calls for credit to be given to every coach that Columbus has had for any sport because we’ve had cross-country runners, track runners, soccer players and more that I’m not even thinking about come, and they’re successful Little 500 athletes,” Britt said. “It just goes to show that Columbus is deep rooted with talent in its coaching staff from high school to high school and sport to sport.”
Britt and the rest of her Columbus riding teammates will try to continue to represent the city in next year’s bike race as they try and duplicate or outperform this year’s third-place finish. Watanabe and her Theta crew will be looking for a three-peat next year. Just because they’ve already won back-to-back races doesn’t mean they’ll be entering next year any less focused than they have been these past two races.
“We definitely have to approach it like we haven’t won before, and I think that’s what we’re going to do,” Watanabe said. “Just continue to work hard.”
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Team: Kappa Alpha Theta
Place: First
Rider: Sydney Keaton
High school: Columbus North (former cross-country and track athlete)
College: Indiana University
Year: Senior
x
Rider: Laura Anne Watanabe
High School: Columbus North (former soccer player)
College: Indiana University
Year: Junior
x
Team: Teter
Place: Third
Rider: Lauren Britt
High School: Columbus North (former soccer player)
College: Indiana University
Year: Junior
x
Rider: Chase Wischmeier
High school: Columbus East (former track athlete)
College: Indiana University
Year: Senior
x
Rider: Kinsey Allen
High school: Columbus North
College: Indiana University
Year: Junior
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