Story by Loren Eggenschwiler
The MSU Cycling Team traveled north to Indianapolis last week for Collegiate Track nationals held at the Major Taylor Velodrome.
Races began Thursday morning with the 3 kilometer Pursuit for the women, a timed individual event. MSU’s Jessica Prinner was able to get a time of 4:21.8 for ninth place.
The men followed with their 4 kilometer pursuit where MSU’s Jason Short was able to take 19th.
The morning session ran through lunch straight into the afternoon session that began with the men’s 1 kilometer time trial.
MSU’s Danny Robertson took fifth with 1:10.2. The women then followed with the 500m time trial where Claire Routledge was able to take seventh.
Day two in Indianapolis began with the men’s 200m time trial.
MSU’s Robertson and Matt Fox were able to qualify for the final sprints in the afternoon.
The co-ed sprint qualifications followed. Routledge, Prinner, Erick Goytia, Fox, Short and Robertson qualified for the finals later in the afternoon as well.
The women’s Team Pursuit followed after a few rounds of sprints. Loren Eggenschwiler, Prinner, Routledge, and Ashley Weaver took fourth.
The co-ed sprint team raced for the finals after lunch. The race took a shaky start when the timing clock stopped working.
After some adjustments the team was able to recollect, taking second place for the co-ed sprints.
Robertson and Fox continued to battle opponents as they worked their way through the rounds of finals. Routledge and Prinner raced the 20k points race.
This race was 60 laps with points for the first four for every six laps.
Prinner took off the front a few times earning enough points for fifth. Routledge came in 12th.
The day ended with the finals in the men’s sprints.
Robertson took fourth and Fox took seventh in the final sprints.
The third and final day of Collegiate Nationals began with the women’s 200m time trials to qualify for the final sprints.
Routledge was able to make it through to the finals.
The men’s Team Pursuit followed the time trial. Short, Erick Goytia, Sean Brown and Robertson took eighth.
After a few more rounds of the women’s sprints, Short was able to qualify for the men’s points race held in the afternoon.
The afternoon session began with the women’s sprint semi-finals.
Short then raced the 30k points race where he was able to take 20th. Routledge took seventh in the final sprints.
MSU’s Cycling Team was able to take the bronze in the team omnium (overall).
This is based off of the points collected from all various individual and team events throughout the week.