By Chuck Spalding (Webmaster's Assistant)
Only about 100 people came to Stanford for orienteering on a pleasant Spring day. That's less than half the number at recent year's events, with participation on the White course down about 80%! What happened? Who can know? Perhaps our attendance was down because Stanford wouldn't let us have our event the same day as their annual Community Day event. Or perhaps it was because the permit was uncertain up to a few days before the event, so people made other plans. In any case, we should try to eliminate those complications in future years.
As is usual at Stanford, the White course was a bit more challenging than normal, requiring careful navigation through a maze of buildings, roads, and paths on the campus. However, all six entries completed the course successfully, with Galena Karpelevich finishing first in a quick 21:00; more than 6 minutes ahead of the group of Little Patrick, Big Patrick, Sophia, Anna, and Nick at 27:40.
Participation on the Yellow course was down "only" 60% from previous years. That course was a nice step up in difficulty and distance from the White course. Yellow had more complicated route finding, more controls, and longer legs. The course was won by experienced club member Gary Kraght with a swift 26:02, well ahead of Rod & Kristina Sinks in second at 35:58.
The Orange course was another nice step up from the Yellow course, with more controls, longer legs, and even more complicated route finding. Four of the top five times were recorded by guys who had previously run the Sprint course (it must be nice to have that speed and stamina!). However, since the two courses shared four controls, those guys earned only bragging rights, and the official first-place finisher was longtime club member Tony Pinkham at 37:20. Chris Broekhoff (who might be fairly new to orienteering) finished second at 41:59 (ahead of several longtime club members).
The Sprint course provided an opportunity for people to stretch their legs, and they did! The top two finishers, Ben Legg and Syd Reader, had identical times. (Ben is listed first in the results because he didn't have Syd's "home-field" advantage. However, Syd was the first starter, with nobody to chase, and Ben was catching Tapio Karras throughout the course, so perhaps Syd deserves top bragging rights.) Third-place finisher Rex Winterbottom was only one second slower! The fourth- and fifth-place finishers were only 18 and 20 seconds behind Rex, so the top five finishers were separated by only 21 seconds. In addition, there were other very close finishes throughout the field. We should have used E-Punch!* The women's race within the race had Stephanie Maclean finishing first, several minutes ahead of Tatiana Fedyk.
As always, the event couldn't have been held without the efforts of many people—before and at the event. Peter Graham and Russell Neilson ran the gauntlet of Stanford bureaucracy to get the permit, with support by Brad Wetmore. Matthias Kohler did an excellent job of designing the courses, all the more notable considering this was his first time setting courses not on snow. Matthias also recorded map corrections and prepared the maps and courses for printing, and set most of the controls (in the morning of the event). As usual, many thanks go to Bob Cooley for his invaluable help with the maps—in addition to printing all the maps (and we asked for a lot of them, because of the anticipated crowd), Bob also entered Matthias' corrections.
Jim Fish was very helpful throughout the morning, eagerly jumping in when a need arose. The ever-present registration team of Ev & Jean Beuerman did their usual wonderful job. Beginners clinics were given by Dan Greene and Jim Fish. Starts were handled by Meg Gerstner, Russell Neilson, Tony Pinkham, and Jim Fish (he was everywhere!). Russell Neilson, Leslie & George Minarik, and Gary Kraght computed the results. Last but not least, Tapio Karras kindly stayed until the end to help Matthias and me pick up the controls.
Thanks to all those folks, and to anyone who I've inadvertently overlooked.
* Just kidding. We didn't use E-punch because of the risk of having units go missing. Yes, I know we've used E-punch at that other university across the bay, but that campus doesn't have any people around on the weekend. ;-)
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