Annadel State Park, Santa Rosa
including the Western United States Orienteering Championships A-meet
October 25-26, 1997

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
Home: pyncombejuno.com (650) 969-5320
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