Some of Ball State University's lesser known athletes had their day to shine on Saturday.
The McKinley Mile Bike Race and Field Day brought out hundreds in the Muncie and Ball State communities on Saturday.
Sixteen teams registered for the two-race event. The Benny Race was for more experienced and competitive riders and the Cardinal race was more laid back and less competitive.
The third edition of the event since returning from a four-year hiatus registered more teams for the two races than last year and ran out of wrist bands for the field day events.
Tamika Smith, program coordinator for Greek Life, said the day was "wonderful." Competitors had fun in the race regardless of where they placed and the community seemed to enjoy the field day. Bringing out students and members of the Muncie community is the point of the event and the good weather only helped.
"I think it's been the perfect mixture," she said.
Team T.O.D.D. won the Benny Race. John Callahan said the event was a great success; the roads were in great condition but it was a little windy. The team won the 24-mile race in about one hour and eight minutes despite two riders wrecking and losing about five minutes high-fiving spectators on the back stretch.
He said McKinley Mile is great because it highlights a sport that doesn't normally get much recognition.
Sean FitzSimons, an alternate for the Alpha Tau Omega team, said the race was amazing. It was "crazy" to see all the athletes he normally wouldn't because there isn't much of a venue to cyclists on campus.
He said the race was intense. His team had a bit of a mix-up in the pit area during the race that made them scramble.
Dillon Kimmel, vice president of marketing for University Program Board, said the event had a great turnout. He's not sure how many people showed up to the field day events – which included live music, inflatables, banzai bikes and more — but UPB ran out of the 500 wrist bands it gave people upon entry. He said it looked like attendance was on par with last year.
"Pretty much everything that could've gone right, did," he said.
One of the reasons the event went well this year, Kimmel said, is because the field day wasn't split between University Green and Woodworth Lawn this year. It was consolidated in one location and didn't cause any confusion.
Kimmel has worked on the event each of the three years since its return. He said the race and field day has built upon itself each year.
"We've been really happy with the way it's progressed, at least from my time here," he said.
This is Smith's first year at Ball State, so she didn't know how the event did in its first two years since returning to campus. But this year had the most teams in the past three years. She said there were no problems and everyone had a great time.
"I think today has been almost perfect," Smith said. "I think it's just a really good team-up between Student Life and UPB."
Sam Householder contributed to this report.
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