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Janet punches the finish with the help of twin daughters Katie and Sarah; Morgan Territory A-meet, October 2001 (Photo: Judy Koehler)

Briones

Orinda
March 11, 2001

by Harold & Penny DeMoss

The Gods of Sunshine and Fair Weather must have looked down on us at Briones. It rained for several weeks prior to our event. Penny had set courses on paper, but when we went to Briones and started to vet the control locations, the muddy trails and almost impossible climbs over ridges (3 steps up, and 2 back!) made her think that under those conditions, Green would take around 2 hours. She reworked the courses, changing some of the control locations, so that contouring around steep spurs and shortening the courses, might keep the times reasonable, considering the muddy conditions expected.

Then, the week before the event, the expected rainy weather didn't materalize, and the ground started to dry out. Mark Prior and Dennis Wildfogel ran courses during the week and reported that the courses were going to be fast. The maps had already been printed by Bob Cooley on OCAD, but he agreed that he would reprint the revised Blue course that Penny designed. The other courses would be slightly short with fast times, but Penny encouraged people to move up a course if they wanted to get their monies worth and enjoy the beautiful day in the woods a little longer!

Scott Aster spots a control on the Green course at Briones.

So as a result, the conditions on the day were perfect! A week earlier, it would have been too muddy, and a week later the cow prints will have hardened into ankle twisters! Below are the complete results.

The Winners

The White course was won by Doug Masiel in 26:42. Gary Kraght showed up to blitz through Yellow in 20:45. Johanna Merriss was first woman on Yellow with a time of 33:46. She does quite well when we give her the right map!

Penny was determined to figure out a way to get a better completion percentage on Orange and she may have hit on something. Her plan was to start with fairly easy (technically) control locations and then gradually make them more difficult until before they knew it they were sharing a control with Blue! It seems to have worked because overall I'd say the course was quite challenging, and yet only 3 of the 17 runners didn't finish. Thomas Wilkins led for the entire race and finished first with a time of 45:24, a fairly easy victory over 2nd place Gwenhael Jacq -53:53. First individual woman was Grace Mellow in 117:57.

Vivian Lee and Werner Haag had a pretty good battle on Brown. Viv was ahead to 2, Werner took over until 4 , Viv pulled ahead again at 5, but Werner took over for good at 6 edging Viv out by a final time of 28:33 to 30:06. They were well clear of the rest of the field with 3rd place Patty White finishing in 41:16.

There was a similar tussle on Green. George Minarik was ahead at 3, Lars Fjellbirkeland took over briefly at 4, George retook the lead at 5 by the closest of margins the Lars pulled ahead and held the lead until the finish. His winning time was 53:28 to George's 56:12. Hmmm, maybe the Green wasn't so short after all.....sorry Evan. Debbie Wojtowicz was first woman on Green in 75:47, one place ahead of Abby Wolfe at 84:41.

On the Red course, one of the tightest races in memory took place with 5 people finishing within 31 seconds, places 3 - 7. AND they had differing route choices. What fun. Derek Maclean lead until control #4 when eventual winner Matthias Kohler took over for good and finished with a very impressive time of 54:08. Bruce Wolfe posted the fastest time on only one leg, but was steady and consistent to finish 2nd in 57:17. The first woman was Jennifer Peck, who'd rather we didn't mention her time out loud, but really, if you take away the problems "getting into the map" (control #1) , she actually had a decent run. Please come back Jennifer, we need more women on Red.

One question remains concerning the Red course: Would Evan Custer have run faster or slower if a 175 lb. german shepherd wasn't chasing him?

Dan Stoll-Hadayia was quickest out of the blocks on Blue and held a narrow lead at the first control. Syd Reader took over for three controls until Wyatt Riley, with a surge, grabbed the lead until the 7th control when Syd stopped messing about and pulled away for the win in a time of 67:36 to Wyatt's 2nd place finish of 71:27. Dan finished 3rd in 79:37.

Volunteer Thanks

The quality of an event is what happens on the day. The courses can be well-designed, and all the control locations properly vetted, but the many volunteers that help on race morning are what makes things run smoothly.

I would like to thank the East Bay Regional Park District, and the Briones Regional Park Supervisor, Ms. Denise Defreese, for their continuing cooperation and support. Thanks to Rosemary Johnson for getting the permit for our event, and thanks to Bob Cooley for the premarked maps. The volunteers on the day:

Results

Also be sure to check out the e-punch splits for the Orange through Blue courses. 
White   2.3km, 82m climb, 8 controls

   1  Doug Masiel                          26:42
   2  C.T. List                            36:10
   3  Chase                                52:30
   4  Jay Brady & Debra Mulanax            52:38
   5  Robin & Joanne Leadbetter,
        Vicki Woolworth                    52:48
   6  Bev Minor                            58:43
   7  Shelly Clements                      58:43
   8  Brian, Erin, Keith Wilson            66:00
   9  Emma Arroyaue                        70:06
  10  Nancy Lamore                         70:06
  11  Piper Riley & Judy Koehler           71:38


Yellow   2.4km, 82m climb, 9 controls

   1  Gary Kraght                          20:45
   2  Gwenhael Jacq                        25:16
   3  Doug Masiel                          28:55
   4  Eric Cole                            31:40
   5  Johanna Merriss                      33:46
   6  Eric & Kitty Gordon                  35:19
   7  Lynn & Pete Elmensdorf               42:05
   8  Jim Wampler, Marilyn Stelzner,
        Jamie & Clair Wampler              44:10
   9  David Bend & Marleen Roberts         46:15
  10  Glenn Chase (4)                      46:35
  11  D. Hoffman & E. Johnson              46:53
  12  Chery Madson                         50:45
  13  Team Tangent (6)                     55:50
  14  Jay & Emily Hann                     58:04
  15  Henri Picciotto & Barbara Selfridge  59:53
  l6  Jack, Joan, Athena & Philip Myers    60:17
  l7  Myka & Ann Jordan                    61:03
  l8  Jeff Levin (3)                       61:42
  l9  Terry Pratt                          64:05
  20  Joe, Will & Sue McVaughton           64:30
  21  Michael Hay & Brian Jordon           65:52
  22  Sarah Borstner & Julie Minton        66:43


Orange   3.9 km, 187 m Climb, 10 Controls

   1  Thomas & Wilkins          45:24
   2  Gwenhael Jacq             53:53
   3  Riley & Finnegan          66:21
   4  Craig Mar                 74:36
   5  Alan Jones                78:28
   6  Terry Englehart           95:30
   7  John Pagendarm           103:15
   8  Angela & Mike Henders    109:36
   9  Grace Mellow             117:57
  10  Barbara Straka           123:00
  11  Alan & Debor La Vergue   129:55
  12  Denise Wojtowicz         132:22
  13  Lautz & Hightdudis       146:23
  14  Silva Dolmane            148:08

      Maury Zuber                MP
      Kevin Walker               DNF
      Eglute Martisiute          DNF


Brown   2.8 km, 145 m Climb, 8 Controls

   1  Werner Haag               28:33
   2  Vivian Lee                30:06
   3  Patty White               41:16
   4  Jill Seaman               41:25
   5  Leslie Minarik            44:45
   6  Stew Hintz        (GCO)   47:00
   7  Dwight Freund     (GCO)   48:57
   8  Isabelle Gracia           52:11
   9  Jim Birch                 52:38
  10  Vicki Woolworth           52:58
  11  Marsha Jacobs             59:35
  12  Meredith & Weydemeyer     63:08
  13  Criqui & Jankowski        67:49
  14  Jennifer Kerr     (GCO)   68:30
  15  Bolger & Gerber           69:55
  16  Natasha Gelfand           69:57
  17  Meg Gerstner              74:24
  18  Dean French               78:25
  19  Nancy Lindeman            82:31
  20  Tono Estrada              83:25
  21  Ben & Ira Weiner         183:27


Green   4.3 km, 235 m Climb, 9 Controls

   1  Lars Fjellbirkeland       53:28
   2  George Minarik            56:12
   3  Chris Day                 61:41
   4  Gerald Yip                64:30
   5  Scott Aster               65:13
   6  Brian Donohue             66:16
   7  William Straka            70:48
   8  Mike Fleishman            74:07
   9  Parag Gupta               74:15
  10  Debbie Wojtowicz          75:47
  11  Abby Wolfe                84:41
  12  Jeff Lanam                97:35
  13  Robert Lewis             105:18
  14  Christine Shirley        119:15
  15  Vic Revenko              139:09
  16  Polacco & Smriga         168:40

      Angelica Riley             DNF


Red   5.2 km, 367 m Climb, 12 Controls

   1  Matthias Kohler           54:08
   2  Bruce Wolfe               57:17
   3  Tapio Karras              59:54
   4  Chris Tuffley             59:55
   5  Hannu Haarma              60:03
   6  Kent Ohlund               60:07
   7  Gary Carpenter            60:25
   8  Derek Maclean             62:37
   9  Chris Sherwood            63:50
  10  Adrian Martin             67:11
  11  Chris Taylor              71:28
  12  James Wilson              72:20
  13  Kelly Wells               74:28
  14  Alan Glendinning          79:45
  15  Eric Rosenzweig           80:00
  16  Mark Blair                80:37
  17  Kevin Schoenfeld          81:02
  18  Rod Jaehn                 81:11
  19   Evan Custer              83:25
  20  Andrejus Masalkovas       88:19
  21  Bill Papendick            94:54
  22  Mark Rice                104:17
  23  Jennifer Peck            141:56
  24  David Schmidt            145:50


Blue   7.0 km, 440 m Climb, 14 Controls

   1  Syd Reader                67:36
   2  Wyatt Riley               71:27
   3  Dan Stoll-Hadayia         79:37
   4  Steve Gregg               82:24
   5  Doug Stein                82:39
   6  Thorsten Graeve           83:51
   7  Panu Haaramo              87:40
   8  Van Boughner              95:15
   9  Dorsey Moore             115:02
  10  Ian Tidswell             118:23
  11  Gavin Wyatt-Mair         121:18
  12  Peter Graube             127:13
  13  Vadimas Masalkovas       137:08
  14  Daniel Pratt             161:07

      Mark Prior                 DNF