Briones

Orinda
Oct. 15, 2000

by Gavin Wyatt-Mair, meet director

We had great weather, a huge turnout, and plenty of fun at this year's Briones event and 9th Annual Bay Area Scout Orienteering Championships. There were 565 scouts and 114 BAOC participants, for a total of 670 people who participated - I think that's a new club record! Below are results for both the BAOC event and the Scout-O.

This year we were fortunate to have e-punching on all courses, a really great improvement to our efficiency and accuracy. The e-punching went very smoothly, despite the novelty of the situation, and it's definitely a keeper for next year's event.

Thanks for the Help!

We would like to thank the East Bay Regional Park District and the Briones Park rangers for their support. The park rangers were particularly helpful with parking, access and advice, and we are very grateful to them. The scouts would like to thank BAOC for sponsoring the Scout-O event and helping scouting out. Thanks also to all the parents and scout leaders who took the time to bring their scouts to a day of orienteering.

To all our helpers: Thank you VERY much. With such a large attendance, help was the most essential element of the meet, and you all did a wonderful job! To those I have left out (and I'm sure I have, since there were so many ad-hoc volunteers), please accept my thanks, too. And, of course, thanks to my family (Nina, Arwen, Malcolm, Kelsey, Wendy) for all their help and patience - typing, stuffing packets, telephone calls, mailings, recruiting, results, and putting up with the disruption.

A special thank-you to Esther Heller and Nick Corsano who devoted their entire weekend (and that includes all of Saturday night), plus numerous other hours for a whole year, helping with just about everything. Also to Dan Stoll-Hadayia who brought sanity to our results computation at last (not to mention a bunch of additional help).

I would like to make an important point here: Without the help of so many volunteers, this event simply would not occur. But every year it does occur, and the continued growth of the event indicates that it's been a worthwhile endeavor. In many cases, the volunteers are club members or helpers who pitch in un-asked because they happen to see something that needs to be done. They cheerfully take on a great deal of work without any expectation of reward or anything.

I can't itemize every example, for at least two reasons: I'm not even aware of all the help that was given, and I can't even remember that which I was aware of. However, let me give an example of unsolicited help: Penny DeMoss got to Briones early and helped set up the finish and the start; she helped send Scouts off early, then ran a Blue course, helped at the start again, broke down the tent and cleaned up the start area, went out and picked up controls, then helped break down and clean up the finish area. Penny and Harold weren't the last to leave, but close to it. This kind of effort is the epitome of what makes BAOC a great club. Now while I have just run the risk of peeving others who also helped by singling out one individual, I hope everyone understands the spirit of the example, and that it's a wonderful thing to see so many people just pitching in pro-bono!

Here is a woefully incomplete list of helpers:

    
     Nina Tyksinski                Pre-registration, race-day errands
     Dan Stoll-Hadayia             E-punch, results, pre-run, construction
     Bob Cooley                    Maps, equipment
     Arwen, Kelsey, Wendy, Malcolm Pre-registration, packets
     Kelly Wells                   Start, bag pickup
     David Meredith                Parking
     Robert Lewis                  E-punch, results
     Christian Jacobi              Instruction, results, ad hoc
     Liz Butterfield               Start, patches
     Evan Custer                   Equipment, e-punch
     Joe Scarborough               E-punch, early run
     Bill Straka                   Instruction, finish, results
     Barbara Straka                Scout packets, finish, results
     Esther Heller                 Registration, awards, finish, packets, more
     Nick Corsano                  Vet, bag set, packets, water, speech, more
     Penny DeMoss                  Bag pickup, start, construction
     Harold DeMoss                 Bag pickup, construction, start
     Rosemary Johnson              Permits
     Vivian Lee                    Registration


BAOC Results

The advent of e-punching allows the course setter some improved flexibility, in that courses can be set that criss-cross each other and themselves. This permits greater use of better terrain, and facilitates the avoidance of less desirable terrain. Partially as a consequence of this, Briones - despite a well-earned reputation for harshness - was unable to elicit a single complaint!! There were a number of discussions about route choices, though. Maybe Iıll make next yearıs courses tougher... (fiendish cackle, Halloween style).

Also check out the e-punch splits.

White      3.6 km    120 m climb   10 controls

    1  Jack Carsey             1:06:06
    2  Sarah, Kyle, & 
         Richard Asano         1:27:17
    3  Sawaiz Parwiz           2:07:47

Yellow     3.9 km    135 m climb   11 controls

    1  Gary Kraght               34:58
    2  Angelica Riley            39:27
    3  Jussi Ilmarinen           55:37
    4  Linda Spranz            1:09:43
    5  Bobbi Jenkins           1:10:47
    6  Taylor                  1:13:00
    7  Judy Boyer              1:16:21
    8  Skye Jenkins            1:18:53
    9  The Murrays             1:20:15

       O'Mara                    mp
       Jim Martin                mp
       Wendy Holmes              mp

Orange     4.1 km    205 m climb   13 controls

    1  Chris Day               1:05:59
    2  Anu Perasalo            1:11:09
    3  Leena Ilmarinen         1:18:34
    4  Kris Daley              1:27:53
    5  Dan Zimmer              1:31:19
    6  WV Group                1:37:44
    7  Sierra Jenkins          1:40:00
    8  Ralph Lewd              1:43:31
    9  Theresa Hill            1:52:17
   10  Terry Pratt             1:52:34
   11  Barbara Straka          1:57:41
   12  Pagendarm (3)           2:02:27
   13  Judy Koehler            2:17:56
   14  Pfaff                   2:26:17
   15  Dan Jenkins             2:38:12
   16  Kevin Walker            2:44:08

       Idelc Weydenmeyer       mp

Brown      3.3 km   190 m climb    10 controls

    1  Wyatt Riley               43:01
    2  David Joronhensen       1:10:08
    3  Ellie Lightfoot         1:22:56
    4  Deron van Hoff          1:23:06
    5  Bruno Plamondon         1:31:49
    6  Vivian Lee              1:35:13
    7  Leif Kirschenbaum       1:43:29
    8  Jill Seaman             2:06:25
    9  Dean French             2:34:26
   10  Nancy Lindeman          3:21:14

       Jennifer Kerr             mp
       Heinl Ilmarinen           mp
       Susan White               mp

Green     4.5 km   250 m climb     12 controls

    1  Joe Scarborough           56:28
    2  Perttu Ilmarine         1:01:59
    3  Adrian Martin           1:09:49
    4  Mike Fleishman          1:16:56
    5  George Minarik          1:17:26
    6  Yelena Krasnova         1:18:25
    7  Ron Gross               1:18:50
    8  Bill Straka             1:21:49
    9  Rob Gendreau            1:46:53
   10  Doutovnikoff            1:53:56
   11  Thomas Dietikes         2:04:34
   12  Leslie Minarik          2:31:06

       Phillip Hoare             mp
       Stew Hintz                mp

Red      5.2 km    350 m climb     14 controls

    1  Kent Ohlund             1:04:01
    2  Derek Maclean           1:16:46
    3  Chris Taylor            1:26:10
    4  Dan Greene              1:27:41
    5  Ralf Willecke           1:28:24
    6  Russell Green           1:32:41
    7  Alex Krasnov            1:37:39
    8  Eric Rosenzweig         1:43:13
    9  Nick Weber              1:43:34
   10  Mark Blair              2:05:40

Blue      6.8 km    420 m climb    16 controls

    1  Panu Haaramo            1:17:01
    2  Steve Gregg             1:18:25
    3  Jeff Lewis              1:27:31
    4  Mike Springer           1:33:30
    5  Penny DeMoss            1:33:45
    6  Rex Winterbottom        1:39:23
    7  Francois Leonard        1:40:16
    8  Peter Graube            1:53:50
    9  Cecil Conkle            3:25:36


Scout-O Troop Competition

Congratulations to Troop 804 from Danville, our new Bay Area Scout Orienteering Champions! This was their first attempt, and they brought a powerhouse of young runners, well-trained and fit. They managed to pip Troop 32 from San Jose, who have won the competition 5 times! Troop 237 from Orinda came in third. Congratulations also to our Girl Scout champions: Troop 1831 from Dublin.

The competition was organized in two parts:

The totals for each troop were computed from a combination of individual morning results and Score-O. Morning results were weighted based on time, and afternoon results were weighted based on number of correct controls found, with a lateness penalty. Once again, we had an impressive improvement in orienteering skills amongst the scouts. More and more scouts are doing the harder courses, and doing them well.

The undisputed individual Bay Area Scout Orienteering Champion is Byron Hann from Troop 804 in Danville, who won Course 4, the Orange course, in 54:05. His time also puts him in first place amongst the regular BAOC orienteers! Second place went to Michael Sobczyk of Troop 32 from San Jose in 62:41, and David Falck and Michael Lazareschi of Berkeley's Troop 24 were third.

On Course 1 (the White course), first place was won by Kasia Bryzek, Asia Pisanski, Przemek Mazur and Mikotay Fintek of Troop 32 from San Jose in 30:55. Their time also puts them in first place amongst the BAOC orienteers. Second place went to Brianna Georgi, Baily Hopkins and Ally Miklas of Troop 24 from Berkeley in 32:33. Ryan Burghardt, Daviddean Diaz and Andrena Burghardt of Troop 134 took third.

Andrew Robinson and Malcolm Wyatt-Mair of Troop 241 in Lafayette were the winners on an interesting Course 2 (Yellow) in just 43:36. Second place went to Sagar Patel and Josh Mangrum of Troop 100 from Kensington in 47:31. Ryan Rivers and Jonathan Davis of Troop 804 were third.

Course 3 (yellow-Orange) was won by TJ Rakitan and Colin Burgess of Troop 139 from Davis in 62:36. Alameda Troop 78's team of Matt Ramirez and Yoji Reichert were second in 63:30, while Jeff Luyau and Arthur Cheng of Troop 452 came in third.

Al Theiss of Troop 149 from Redwood City collared top honors on the Adult course in 62:58. Jay Hann of Troop 804 in Danville ran a good second in 68:44, and Mark Kidder and Audrey Warmuth of Troop 457 were third. Since this was for bragging rights only, Al gets to be the biggest bragger - well done!

Scout patches were distributed at the meet. If anyone did not receive a patch, as well as a course patch, please contact me. Anyone who has not yet received a patch for last year's meet should also contact me: 925-934-6567 or e-mail GavinWMhome.com..

In addition to these results, you can check out the troop results for previous Scout-Os. (PDF file; to view it, you need the free Acrobat Reader.)