By Graham Brew, 2025 Golden Goat Event Director
Wow, what a fabulous 2025 BAOC Golden Goat/Golden Kid event!!! The weather and the location where perfectly in keeping with the event. Beautiful open golden hillsides, golden weather, and lots of climb! Carl Hoel set courses that truly fit the spirit of the competition.
Congratulations to all who took part. Special congratulations to François Léonard — our Golden Goat! And to Greg Khanlarov our Konquering Kid! Jeffrey Kabel and Mikkel Conradi were second and third on the Goat, with Emily Ellsworth our top female. Ronald Ward and Andrej Masalkov were second and third on the Kid, with Johanna Merriss and Steph Maclean neck and neck for top female.
Finishers' points will be assigned in the usual fashion, and the updated Golden Goat Lifetime Points table will be available later this week. Note that the BAOC 2026 Golden Goat is very likely to be at Las Trampas (San Ramon) on November 21, 2026 — but that is yet to be confirmed.
As ever, the event would not be possible without the contributions of dozens of volunteers. Chief amongst these was Carl-Johan Hoel who set the courses. This was Carl's first time setting for the club, and yet he captured the essence of the Goat/Kid perfectly. Note the diversity of skipped controls on the Kid. As some of you know, Carl could not be at Pacheo this weekend as he was attending to family affairs in Switzerland. Please pass on your thanks to him when you next see him.
Misha Kreslavsky was a huge figure in success of this event. His vetting and recommendations on the courses were meticulous. He also helped with setting controls, E-punch, organizing control pick-up, and many other tasks. He was truly essential for the success of the event in the place of Carl.
Derek Maclean also deserves a very special mention as assistant Event Director. Derek helped with equipment transfers, map printing, beginner clinics, control pick-up, and various other duties. A huge thanks to him for making things run much smoother than they might have otherwise!
Did all the finishers get one of the fabulously cute wooden goat awards? If you did, you can thank Steph Maclean. These helped make the Goat an exceptional and memorial event. Look for various photos on BAOC social media channels soon!
Phil Lacroute and John Blakkan staffed E-punch, with assistance from afar from Jeff Lanam. Thanks to John for the event photos on this page. Registration was handled by Chuck Spalding and Steve Haas, with Sarah Williams behind the scenes. Chuck also accommodated all the website updates. Tapio Karras is our long-serving RouteGadget chief. Jerry Skirvin staffed the Starts and assisted in various other roles, too.
Control pick-up was done by Tom De Vre, Greg Khanlarov, Vicki Woolworth, Derek Maclean, Lubomir Šebo, Misha Kreslavsky, with assistance from Natasha Bondarenko and Mikkel Conradi. Vicki and Greg also took all the equipment home at the end of the event. Gary Kraght handled expenses.
A very big thanks to California State Ranger Nathan Aeschleman and his staff. They truly could not have been more helpful and accommodating. It will be a pleasure to work with them again when we next visit Pacheco. And they look forward to having us back.
Once more, a huge congratulations to all the competitors, and a huge thanks to all the volunteers!
Until next time!
Pictures
Walk to the start
Finisher Award
Golden Goat 3rd, 1st, 2nd
Golden Kid 2nd, 1st, 3rd
The updated Golden Goat Lifetime Points table
The following people earned their first Golden Goat points this year:
Pl Name Points
6 Emily Ellsworth 10
7 Greg Callas 9
9 James Arthurton 7
11 Weichun Fong 5
13 Ian Smith 3
15 Henrike Siemen 1
The following people moved up in the Lifetime Points table this year (2024 Table):
2025 2024 Table
Table Table Place
Name Place Place Change
François Léonard 2 4 -2
Andrew Peterson 20 27 -7
Wayne Staats 25 30 -5
Lubomir Šebo 26 29 -3
Graham Brew 32 36 -4
Jeffrey Kabel 38 91 -53 !!
Taylor Pospisil 44 67 -23 !
John Richardson 109 114 -5
Golden Goat Course
(10.4 km, 800 m climb [7.7%], 16 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 François Léonard BAOC 2:10:34 1:26
2 Jeffrey Kabel BAOC 2:11:47 1:13 9:38
3 Mikkel Conradi BAOC 2:13:47 3:13 1:32
4 Taylor Pospisil BAOC 2:37:49 27:15 8:56
5 Andrew Peterson NAVX 2:40:15 29:41 9:54
6 Emily Ellsworth BAOC 2:41:16 30:42 15:01
7 Greg Callas NAVX 2:42:32 31:58 14:37
8 Wayne Staats BAOC 2:44:16 33:42 24:21
9 James Arthurton BAOC 2:48:54 38:20 20:35
10 Lubomir Šebo BAOC 2:54:15 43:41 24:23
11 Weichun Fong BAOC 2:54:21 43:47 17:39
12 Tapio Karras BAOC 2:55:47 45:13 11:04
13 Ian Smith BAOC 3:12:48 1:02:14 19:32
14 John Richardson BAOC 3:14:42 1:04:08 28:22
15 Henrike Siemen NAVX 3:15:51 1:05:17 22:53
16 Brian Ritchken BAOC 3:16:50 1:06:16 42:37
17 Nikolay Chukanov BAOC 3:19:30 1:08:56 16:18
18 Marie-Josée Parayre BAOC 3:26:43 1:16:09 17:02
19 Tom De Vre BAOC 3:32:40 1:22:06 43:20
20 Ambrose Liu BAOC 3:37:02 1:26:28 25:55
21 Deron van Hoff BAOC 3:40:33 1:29:59 30:54
22 Eric Rosenzweig BAOC 3:46:25 1:35:51 26:07
23 Steve Gregg BAOC 3:56:04 1:45:30 32:12
Felix Silver OK Linna MSP
Jinwen Xu BAOC MSP
Scott Sampson BAOC MSP
Theo Verhoeven BAOC MSP
Van Boughner BAOC MSP
Kevin Henry BAOC DNF
Recinda Sherman BAOC DNF
Johan Grobler NAVX OVT
Kristin Bremm NAVX OVT
Wyatt Riley DVOA DNS
Golden Kid Course
(5.6 km, 420 m climb [7.5%], 11 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost Skip
1 Greg Khanlarov BAOC 1:16:06 3:38 9
2 Ronald Ward CHSOC 1:24:18 8:12 6:07 9
3 Andrej Masalkov BAOC 1:26:19 10:13 1:42 9
4 Werner Haag BAOC 1:38:26 22:20 4:16 5
5 Logan Sternberg Truckee OC 1:40:11 24:05 5:49 10
6 Johanna Merriss BAOC 1:48:54 32:48 13:21 10
7 Stephanie Maclean BAOC 1:49:50 33:44 9:09 10
8 Enxun Wei BAOC 1:53:14 37:08 11:30 5
9 Virginia Wailes BAOC 2:12:29 56:23 23:20 9
10 Olga Boiarynova BAOC 2:12:47 56:41 10:27 9
11 Steve Haas BAOC 2:14:54 58:48 27:18 8
12 Evan Benshoof CHSOC 2:27:06 1:11:00 34:12 4
13 Lliam Reeder CHSOC 2:27:11 1:11:05 33:10 4
14 Aliyah Heyder CHSOC 2:47:58 1:31:52 1:07:16 10
15 Sydney Heyder OK Hammaren 2:48:06 1:32:00 36:34 4
16 Raena Ailes 2:49:02 1:32:56 1:05:14 9
17 Jasmine Slater CHSOC 2:56:30 1:40:24 35:04 5
18 Peter Woodbury CHSOC 3:17:30 2:01:24 52:50 5
19 Luyuan Lin BAOC 3:26:54 2:10:48 55:53 9
20 Harrisha Ampo 3:41:09 2:25:03 1:08:35 11
21 Dominic Farr CHSOC 3:41:45 2:25:39 43:52 1
22 Piper Jensick CHSOC 3:53:04 2:36:58 1:02:17 9
23 Chloe Suitt-Payne CHSOC 3:53:25 2:37:19 1:03:03 9
Kayden Anderson CHSOC MSP
London Baker CHSOC MSP
Rhonda Stieber BAOC MSP
Wayne Cottrell LAOC MSP (2nd course)
Jerry Skirvin BAOC DNS
Advanced Beginner Course
(2.7 km, 190 m climb [7.0%], 7 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Chuck Spalding BAOC 43:39 0:57
2 Wayne Cottrell LAOC 50:24 6:45 8:26
3 Pistashios 1:05:35 21:56 4:31
4 Neville Fernandes,
Rucha Bedarkar BAOC 1:07:27 23:48 3:34
5 Oliver Conradi BAOC 1:09:38 25:59 1:13
6 Allan Kabel 1:29:22 45:43 20:29
7 Eshaan Chandra 1:48:25 1:04:46 20:30
8 Ke Jing 2:02:41 1:19:02 1:00:32
James Kim MSP
DNF
= Did not finish (one or more controls
missed)
DNS
= Did not start
DSQ
= Disqualified
MSP
= Mispunched (one or more incorrect
controls)
OVT
= Overtime
RouteGadget