The Story...
The Starts were remote but the orienteering was terrific and the weather was perfect for running by day and dining with orienteers by night. 150 competitors came from Italy, Finland, Canada, West Point, and all over the western US to either win a Western States Championships title or see how their times and skills compared. Thanks to the tireless efforts of nearly all the BAOC members in attendance and a few members of other clubs, everybody seemed to have had a wonderful time and all were impressed at the services and support provided by BAOC members.
In addition to the A-meet competitors, nearly 130 recreational entrants, many of them first-time orienteers, ran and walked our white, yellow, and orange recreational courses. Many of those people attended our clinics, and some tried more than one course level over the two days.
On day 1, we ran shuttles from 7am to 5pm to ferry workers and competitors to and from the Finish area. From there, people walked either 1.8 km to the WYOBr Starts or 3.8 km to the GRB Starts. It was a long walk for all but it enabled them the chance to orienteer in rarely-used open forests. The West Point and Columbia River Orienteering Club members loved the conditions and wished they had such a park where they came from. Everyone enjoyed using the newly revised map created by George Kirkov.
In the evening, over 100 orienteers attended the event banquet at the Cantina in downtown Santa Rosa. The Cantina provided generous servings of food, comfortable surroundings, and indoor/outdoor dining. Orienteers were everywhere with their maps talking about their courses and strategies. After the dinner, the winners of the day 1 courses reviewed their runs on projections of the Annadel map.
On day 2, everybody had a shorter 1.5 km walk to Starts in a part of the park more familiar to BAOC members. Familiarity, however, seemed to be hardly an advantage as the courses proved to be challenging for everybody. Unfortunately, due to problems with the map around the first controls for the red and blue courses, the results for those two courses were voided for that day (red and blue results were based on the day 1 times). Except for those two controls all the courses were highly rated by the participants. A competitor from Washington said he didn't dare lose contact with his map at any point on his course because the terrain offered many opportunities to make serious errors.
The day 2 red and blue courses were voided because the jury felt that the mapping in the vicinity of the first controls and the placement of those controls violated a number of competitive standards. The main problem was with the map as it was in error in that area. In the case of the blue control, the map error placed the control outside the control circle showing its location on the map thereby automatically voiding the course.
In the case of the red control, a combination of factors led to the voiding of that course. These factors included the mapping error, the closeness of the two controls (red 1 and blue 1) on similar features (they were within 100 m of each other), and that people approaching from different lines of attack unfairly arrived in different places.
At the end of the day, awards were presented to the competitors. There were Western States Championships awards given to each first place A-category competitor living in a western state or belonging to a western club. There were also A-meet awards given to the top finishers of each category without regard to their residence.
A definite advantage shared by all competitors was that they all had the first chance to buy the event T-shirt designed by Penny DeMoss. The T-shirt shows the event course setter, Evan Custer, setting controls with bow and arrow. The design was perfect for the event and the park. If you want your very own T-shirt for this event, you can still buy them but the supply and sizes are limited.
It takes a lot of people to make such an event happen. In this case, the BAOC reputation for putting on a quality event was maintained. There were a lot of very happy orienteers at the event and I expect to see them next year at Big Basin. Here are the people who made this event happen (my apologies for any omissions).
Course Setter Evan Custer USOF Course Consultant Larry Berman USOF Event Consultant Robert Buracynski Registrar Steve Beuerman Mapping Coordinator Bob Cooley Mapper George Kirkov Vetting Bob Cooley Equipment Director Mark Blair Assistant Director Ellie Lightfoot Competition Center Ev and Jean Beuerman Recreational Registration Tom and Sandra Guldman Starts Assignments Wyatt Riley Packets Dennis Wildfogel, Mike Condrin, Ev and Jean Beuerman, Jeff Lanam, Tony Pinkham Starts Gary Carpenter, Tom Carpenter, Olivia and Thorsten Graeve, Gavin Wyatt-Mair, Judy Koehler, Mark and Janet Petersen, Syd Reader, Cheryl Madson, Van Boughner, Yelena Savranskaya, Dan Green, Rosemary Johnson, Gary Kraght Finishes Josh Friederichs, Debbie Friederichs, Lans Taylor, Steve Gregg, Michihiro Kamijima, Hugh Wright, Aileen Abernathy, Stephanie Maclean, Bill Papendick, Tod Flak, Dennis Wildfogel, Meg Gerstner Results Robert Lewis, Alan Glendinning, Meg Gerstner, Marsha Jacobs, Wyatt Riley, Steve Gregg, Julie Wells, Michael Fleishman (runner) Control Pickup Kelly Wells, Julie Wells, Bob Cooley, Ellie Lightfoot, Michael Fleishman, Evan Custer Shuttles Kent Ohlund, Jascha Lee, Arild Orsleie, Nancy Lindeman, Debbie Friedericks, Steve Jankowski, Doug Stein, Joe Scarborough, Manfred Kopisch, Oleg Shakhnovsky, Arlo and Marjorie Severns, Evan Custer (for extensive use of his van) Parking Control Michael Fleishman Clothing Pickup Derek Maclean, Bob Cooley, Doug Stein, Syd Reader, Van Boughner Search and Rescue George Minarik, Sarah Minarik, Eric Ohlund Jury Joe Scarborough, Carl Moore, Mark Peterson T-shirt Design Penny DeMoss Publicity Nancy Lindeman, Tony Pinkham, Judy Koehler, Aileen Abernathy, Ellie Lightfoot Web Page Greg and Kathleen Lennon, Wyatt Riley Clinics Aileen Abernathy, Mike Poulsen, Gary Kraght, Jeff Lanam, Ev Beuerman. First Aid Scott Aster, Joan Roos, Jerry Goss, Stacy Robinson Camping Nancy Lindeman Start-O Werner Haag, Tapio Karras, Vicki Woolworth Child Care Vicki Woolworth, Hilary Wolfe Gookinaid Electrolite Bill Gookin (SDO) Vendors (O' equipment) Bruce Wolfe, Joe Scarborough Parks Rich Irwin and Wardell Noel (Annadel), Arnie Rodgers (Spring Lake) Banquet Stephanie Maclean, Andrew Ornsby (The Cantina) Accountant George Minarik Awards Tony Pinkham, Jean and Ev Beuerman, Amy McGuire, Ellie Lightfoot, Julie Wells, Nancy Lindeman, Scott Aster, Bette Koehler Front page article (Santa Rosa Press Democrat) Tobias Young Here are the start-O results. Mark Brown, age 7 15:30 10 controls John Link, age 8 16:23 10 controls Jessica Lightfoot, age 6 untimed 10 controls Joanne Ledbetter, age 6 untimed 4 controls Jaakko Karras, age 8 11:00 2 controls
Tony Pinkham
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