Indianapolis, Ind. - SCAD's cycling team showed their strength at the 2021 Collegiate Track Championships over the weekend. With teams converging from all over the country, competition was fierce at the Major Taylor Velodrome as talented riders vied for national titles. Among the women's field was 2021 USA Olympian Megan Jastrab. The men's team had a typical strong showing, but Olivia Ray stole the show with a perfect sweep of every women's events she entered.

The championships kicked off on Thursday with the sprint events. Seeding for the field in this head-to-head competition was set by a timed 200m with a flying start. Olivia Ray showed her previous dominance of the event was not by chance as she posted the fastest time to take the first seed. Ray made short work of her opponents in her first two rounds, catapulting her into the semi-finals to be raced the following evening. With the sprint preliminaries out of the way, the SCAD men took to the track for the team pursuit. Teams of four riders posted a 4000M time in a break from the usual format for this event. The Bees made a strong showing, placing 5th.

Friday saw the men's individual pursuit, with SCAD Atlanta represented by Willem Kaiser, Kenny Boots, and Ian Poore. With two riders starting on opposite sides of the track, each individual's 4000M times were compared with the rest of the field to determine the placings. Kenny Boots placed 11th overall for SCAD, with Kaiser close behind in 13th. Ray was next up for SCAD in the 500m women's time trial. The top 5 riders were separated by less than 2.5 seconds, but Olivia showed her usual strength, taking her first national title of the week.

After lunch came the scratch race with the men covering 36 laps (12km) and the women 8km (24 laps). Featuring a mass start, riders play fast moving chess as they jockey for position in preparation for a final sprint across the line. Willem Kaiser led the way for the SCAD men with a 20th place finish, followed by Elijah Hughley in 22nd. Ray clinched her second national championship, taking first in the women's race.

Ray was not done yet, however. Winning two sprints against Colorado Mesa's Mia Deye, Olivia booked her place in the women's sprint final. Surprisingly in the final, Ray's opponent was not Jastrab but Marian's Stephanie Lawrence. Ultimately it made little difference to Olivia as she pushed her way to her third national title of the day.

The final day of competition dawned, and riders opened with the 1km time trial. Racing for SCAD were Kaiser, Boots and Poore. Boots was the highest place finisher for SCAD, coming in 20th overall. He was followed by Ian Poore in 28th, and Willem Kaiser in 30th.

The Time Trial was followed by the Points Race, where the men raced 30km to the women's 20km. Featuring a mass start, riders are awarded points for top 5 finishes every 5th lap (5 points for first, 1 point for 5th). They gain an additional 20 points for lapping riders, or lose 20 points if they are lapped. SCAD's Willem Kaiser was among the early leaders on the men's side, accruing points with strong finishes in the early stages of the race. His results came at a price however, and he faded down the leaderboard. Teammate Elijah Hughley raced more cautiously, finishing in 15th overall in the final tally. Kaiser was barely behind him in 16th place.

Making her final individual appearance of the championships, Olivia Ray battled back and forth with Olympian Megan Jastrab throughout the women's Points Race. With both riders earning the bonus for lapping riders, it came down to the wire before Ray was able to edge Jastrab out by two points to claim her fourth national title.

To close out the week, all of the SCAD Atlanta riders came together for the team sprint - a 6 lap timed event where the lead riders peel off the track one by one leaving one to finish. Ray opened with two laps for the SCAD team, followed by Hughley, Poore, Kaiser, then Boots. The Bees finished just 6.1 seconds behind eventual champions, Marian to take 5th place.

The win was enough to secure the omnium for Ray, making her the overall champion on the women's side. In the team omnium, the efforts of all riders was enough to see SCAD in 5th place.