By Scott Aster, Event Director
While the Bay Area is known for it's great diversity of flora and fauna, imagine my shock when participants came back from their courses with tales of seeing elephant tracks out on their courses! Had Lake Herman, unbeknownst to us, been converted to a wildlife sanctuary? Were twenty-ton behemoths out there hidden in the admittedly very tall grass?
Fortunately, the answer given was that, no, elephants were nowhere to be seen, and the tracks were instead created by normal-sized orienteers, bushwhacking their way to the controls.
The grass on the park's hillsides, which course setter Gavin Wyatt-Mair described as barely 4-inches tall a month ago, had grown like bamboo on steroids, and in places soared more than five feet high, taller than many of the days participants! This added greatly to the technicality of the courses, and proved an unfortunate slog for early "runners" who found being first out on a course a distinct disadvantage, as they fought their way through the foliage without the benefit of a machete. Later participants could follow in the early-pathfinders' footsteps, and with every following competitor, the paths grew larger, smoother, and much easier to traverse. Course setter Gavin inadvertently compensated for this advantage to a degree, by designing courses that intersected each other multiple times, generating multiple elephant tracks into and out of each control. If a later competitor chose the wrong elephant track, they would then face the dilemma of needing to backtrack, or blaze their own virgin path through the thick terrain.
In spite of all this, the courses were very well received, with Gavin doing a great job making the courses as technical as possible (even without the vegetation) on a map consisting of mostly open, treeless land. Winning times came in just about as expected, with the biggest issue being that many participants missed either the first or the last (depending on the course) control on their courses. This control, being both very obvious and very close to both the Start and Finish, was perhaps too easy to find?
It was great to see the youth groups come out for the event. Groups included JROTC from both Stockton and Carson City, a Boy Scout group from Petaluma, and a large group of students from UCSF!
Volunteers make these events happen, and they deserve great appreciation for their efforts. First and foremost is course setter Gavin Wyatt-Mair, who not only set the courses, but prepared the maps, corralled most of the equipment for the event, and even went out and picked up controls at the end of the day.
Jeff Lanam ably handled E-punch duties, even when one of his two laptops stopped working. He managed to make due with the single computer, and made sure everyone got their results.
Steve Haas, Chuck Spalding, and Mattias Kohler effortlessly handled registration, and Rex Winterbottom pitched in at the last minute by giving beginner clinics. Jerry Skirvin ran his course early, and then handled the starts for the rest of the day.
Big thanks to the crew that went out collecting the controls. Nick Corsano, Gary Kraght, Tac Sugiyama, Steve Gregg, Steph Maclean, and Gavin Wyatt-Mair, made quick work of the task (it was great to have so many helpers!), allowing us to leave the park before 3 PM, which might be a record for events I've directed.
Lastly, thanks to Dominquez Dickerson, the parks person for the city of Benicia, who helped make the permitting process a breeze, which as we all know, is not a given anymore at many of our map sites!
Thank you all for a fun, successful event!
White Course (2.2 km, 40 m climb, 13 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Rex Winterbottom BAOC 16:26 0:20 (3rd course)
2 Nathaniel Nye 24:44 8:18 6:55
3 Neva Mellow CHSOC 27:08 10:42 3:14 (2nd course)
4 Ashley Graham 28:33 12:07 7:40
5 Keira Graham 29:19 12:53 7:06
6 Cecilia Roome 30:46 14:20 2:34
7 John Blakkan 36:54 20:28 5:45 (2nd course)
8 Aditi Shukla 38:11 21:45 6:41
9 Abraham Delgado 1:10:20 53:54 54:59
10 Ayala & Tanar 1:15:21 58:55 28:11
11 Harry Richardsojnd BAOC 1:39:50 83:24 53:05
Jaxton Meyer DNF
Ronald Thumann DNS
Yellow Course (2.4 km, 65 m climb, 12 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Nathaniel Nye 21:13 1:15
2 Jonas De Vre BAOC 28:26 7:13 4:26
3 Bulldogs Stockton 35:09 13:56 5:48
4 Beeri 41:06 19:53 5:20
5 Milo's group BAOC 43:57 22:44 7:18
6 John Blakkan 45:49 24:36 9:16
7 Pacheco Stockton 59:42 38:29 20:19
8 Katherine Rea 1:10:02 48:49 27:08
9 Lost in Space 1:10:23 49:10 18:06
10 Troop 199-A BSA 1:10:26 49:13 25:41
11 Romeo, Carmichael,
Pardilla 1:16:37 55:24 33:55
12 Oliver Conradi BAOC 1:53:34 92:21 40:14
13 Nancy Lindeman BAOC 1:58:25 97:12 15:33
Amith Gandhi DNF
Benji Kyte DNF
Concrete Wings DNF
Noah Kyte DNF
Rex Winterbottom BAOC DNF (2nd course)
Troop 199-B BSA DNF
Valerie Lacroute DNF
Eric Pacheco DNS
Fernando Flores DNS
Orange Course (4.0 km, 155 m climb, 17 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Chloe Suitt-Payne CHSOC 1:36:26 24:11
2 Emily Suitt CHSOC 1:37:51 1:25 24:14
3 Maria Benshoof CHSOC 1:38:20 1:54 22:02
4 Akira Ramirez CHSOC 1:39:19 2:53 25:38
5 Piper Jensick CHSOC 1:40:21 3:55 27:53
6 Pena, Victoria,
Algandar, Michel Stockton 1:40:32 4:06 17:24
7 The Daydreamers 1:41:17 4:51 24:01
8 Liam Reeder CHSOC 1:43:41 7:15 30:49
9 Mark Sisaki BAOC 1:46:36 10:10 35:25
10 Valencia Stockton 2:09:03 32:37 54:46
11 Ricardo Stockton 2:14:38 38:12 61:21
Aditi Shukla DNF (2nd course)
Anna Staats BAOC DNF
Troop 199-C BSA DNF
Mia Victoria DNS
Pastor Valencia DNS
Ricardo Saldana DNS
Silver Course (3.1 km, 60 m climb, 18 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Rex Winterbottom BAOC 25:01 0:00
2 Rosemary Johnson BAOC 1:05:50 40:49 5:17
Sarah Williams BAOC DNS
Brown Course (3.9 km, 135 m climb, 21 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Werner Haag BAOC 45:25 0:36
2 Stephanie Maclean BAOC 52:09 6:44 1:52
3 Steve Haas BAOC 59:38 14:13 2:05
4 Michael Robinson BAOC 1:01:31 16:06 2:05
5 Olga Kraght BAOC 1:02:32 17:07 5:53
6 Nick Corsano BAOC 1:15:11 29:46 9:49
7 Johanna Merriss BAOC 1:18:06 32:41 20:42
8 Weston Prior 1:19:53 34:28 13:50
9 Yifan You 1:21:21 35:56 31:46
10 Roopa McNealis BAOC 1:28:06 42:41 11:33
11 Rhonda Stieber BAOC 1:28:08 42:43 11:24
12 Miroslav Trubelja BAOC 1:28:21 42:56 11:45
13 HHR 1:28:52 43:27 22:34
14 Sean Robinson BAOC 1:32:10 46:45 16:30
15 Wang Lab 1:43:27 58:02 20:47
16 Toby Street 2:03:46 78:21 60:14
17 Shengye Wang BAOC 2:12:47 87:22 51:03
Honk Honk DNF
Wang Lag DNF
YTT DNF
Dennis Wildfogel BAOC DNS
Shuai Meng DNS
Green Course (5.0 km, 145 m climb, 27 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Paul Roome 41:07 2:59
2 Daria Titkina 47:09 6:02 0:34
3 Tapio Karras BAOC 48:37 7:30 1:57
4 Steve Gregg BAOC 50:19 9:12 1:22
5 Marie-Josée Parayre BAOC 53:10 12:03 1:56
6 Tac Sugiyama BAOC 57:08 16:01 2:47
7 Eric Rosenzweig BAOC 1:00:34 19:27 3:11
8 Zander Rosenzweig BAOC 1:02:18 21:11 16:38
9 Derek Maclean BAOC 1:02:24 21:17 2:18
10 Chuck Spalding BAOC 1:09:25 28:18 5:45
11 Jerry Skirvin BAOC 1:11:03 29:56 12:53
12 Josh Munic BAOC 1:16:43 35:36 20:25
13 Midnight Momo BAOC 1:19:11 38:04 20:39
14 Phil Lacroute BAOC 1:20:00 38:53 20:05
15 Gary Kraght BAOC 1:25:53 44:46 18:13
16 Joseph Geddes BAOC 1:43:48 62:41 19:59
17 Robin Nordberg COC 1:47:47 66:40 14:37
18 Phillip Hoare NAVX 1:51:48 70:41 18:28
Matthias Kohler BAOC DNF
Red Course (6.2 km, 230 m climb, 28 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 Graham Brew BAOC 1:08:40 3:14
2 Andrej Masalkov BAOC 1:17:43 9:03 5:21
3 Theo Verhoeven BAOC 1:27:06 18:26 7:01
4 Kat Lan BAOC 1:38:18 29:38 11:45
5 Jeff Street BAOC 2:25:41 77:01 48:50
Blue Course (7.3 km, 245 m climb, 34 controls)
Time
Pl Name(s) Club Time Behind Lost
1 François Léonard BAOC 57:48 0:00
2 Evgeny Kathanovsky BAOC 1:01:39 3:51 0:45
3 Wayne Staats BAOC 1:05:17 7:29 3:16
4 Jeffrey Kabel BAOC 1:08:23 10:35 3:43
5 Jeffrey Goodwin BAOC 1:12:08 14:20 13:22
6 John Richardson BAOC 1:12:32 14:44 4:11
7 Emily Ellsworth BAOC 1:13:30 15:42 4:23
8 Tom De Vre BAOC 1:17:39 19:51 8:22
9 Roman Roshchin 1:19:38 21:50 3:45
10 Weichun Fong BAOC 1:32:00 34:12 11:11
11 Kris Andersen GCO 1:52:18 54:30 17:47
12 Neva Mellow CHSOC 2:11:47 73:59 9:07
Bruce Christopherson COC 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
AttackPoint