2008 Sierra Avalanche Ski-Orienteering Championships
Date: Jan. 30 - Feb. 3, 2008
Location: Lake Tahoe Area
Event Director: 
- 650.793.8764
Course Setters: Steve Miller, Bob Baylor, Matthias Kohler
Type: 4 Ski-O events in 5 days in the Lake Tahoe area
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Two weeks before the event, the snow storms started. It was great to realize that this year we would have plenty of fresh snow for our event. What we didn't realize was that the storms would continue right through our events. The weekend before the event, some of the course setters were struggling through a blizzard that one referred to as "beyond the call of duty." In the final week before the event, we could see that our events were going to be held in snow storms, so we simplified our setups as much as we could, because we knew that we would be spending a lot of time packing down secondary trails in fresh snow. We definitely had our work cut out for us.
A four-day event happens only because a lot of people join in with their ideas and work. First off, each of the resorts was very supportive, each making sure (or trying to make sure) the trails we needed were groomed, some even providing an employee and snowmobile for difficult setup tasks. The course setters (Stephen Miller, Chuck Lyda, Carol Schick-Lyda, Bob Baylor, and Matthias Kohler) were all untiring champions who were out there in all conditions doing wonders to make sure we had some great courses at each event. Registration (Mike Poulsen, Scott Drumm, Tom Jahn, Adolf Jochnick, and Kerie Raymond) covered the complexities of registering new people, checking in registered people, and renting equipment at our events. The starts crew (led by Sharon Crawford and worked by Sharon, Shirley Donald, Nancy Lindeman, Adrian Zissos, Charlotte MacNaughton, and others) had things up and running each day and through more than one snow storm. E-punch (Rosemary Johnson, Terry Farrah, Trinka Gillis, and even Adrian Zissos) were on hand to take downloads and resolve all sorts of problems, especially when there were late course changes that I forgot to communicate to them. Control pickup was handled by a huge crew of enthusiastic people that included Ken Walker Sr, Greg Walker, Nancy Lindeman, Kerie Raymond, Margus Hallik, Brenda Giese, Trinka Gillis, Bjorn Widerstrom, Stephen Miller, Bob Baylor, Matthias Kohler, and others). For the constant updates (and corrections) to our Web page, thanks goes to Stephanie Maclean and Chuck Spalding. For preregistration, Alan Houser did a great job managing our records that enabled us to plan our resources—it was great to have so much in the way of data to use for our events. Last and not least, many thanks to Nancy Lindeman who handled Publicity, and constantly reminded me of things I found easy to forget when I focused on other things. If you know of somebody else who helped, please let me know and I'll make sure they are listed here.
Day 1 – Tahoe Donner Cross Country
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The day before the first event, the course setter, Steve Miller, and I found that we had to set courses in a snow storm often using ungroomed trails that we could barely distinguish. Steve was able to use a snowmobile driven by one of the resort staff members, but the snowmobile got stranded in a snow drift and a groomer was dispatched to pull them out. For myself, the conditions were often disorienting, and I ended up retracking myself many times to be sure controls ended up in the right place. By that night, only 70 percent of the controls were set, and the secondary trails had not been made (the storm would just cover them up with fresh snow). At 4 AM the next morning, the groomers went to work grooming the trails. We had coordinated with them to make sure they knew the trails we needed, but we specified the trail systems to groom, not the specific trails. That resulted in one trail being ungroomed—we assumed it was in one of the prioritize trail systems, but it was in a low-priority trail system for the groomers. Unfortunately, this meant that a key trail for the Blue, Red, and Green courses was not groomed. I learned from that experience to ask about specific trails when talking to the groomers.
For Day 1, some of our guests did wonders by volunteering for us. Mike Poulsen and Scott Drumm took care of registration, while Sharon Crawford set up the start area. Because the grooming continued until at least 10 AM, we had to delay the starts until 10:30. Steve Miller was still out on the trails making secondary trails. Little did we know that one trail, Rolling Thunder, was not groomed. Fortunately, the controls on that trail would be relatively close to another trail, so competitors could find short cuts to the controls.
Steve's original course design had to be consolidated somewhat because of the conditions. His Blue course included a skill test down the double black diamond I'm Okay, Euer Okay trail, and three courses used a control on another trail that couldn't be groomed that morning, so we moved that control and eliminated the Blue control. The resulting courses still made great use of the Tahoe Donner hills by offering interesting contouring route selections back and forth across the Home Range trail system. For one leg, his Red and Blue courses took the competitors to the top of the trail system, then offered them the "safe" route back on groomed trails or an "unknown" route with speed possibilities going down a long hillside off trail—most went for the open hillside adventure for some great fun.
In addition to our many preregistered competitors, we had a number of staff members at Tahoe Donner Cross Country and Mark Nadel (the ad coordinator for the Far West Nordic magazine that publicizes all the regional ski races) do our courses. That meant that we had a larger than usual number of competitors on the Blue course, and we ran out of Blue maps for the first time ever. All in all, we had 54 competitors, probably a record for a weekday event.
Day-1 Results
WinSplits (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=8886) – RouteGadget (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=117&kieli=)
Pl Name Time
FOpen (White - 3.0 km, 10 controls)
1 Emily Hann 2:09:23
F55+ (Orange - 4.9 km, 9 controls)
1 Patty Clemo 1:29:04
2 Julie Pohl 1:43:51
3 Susan Hawkes-Teeter 1:45:14
4 Jennifer Kerr 1:54:26
5 Helene Gordon 1:55:40
6 Anndy Wiselogle 2:39:00
7 Rosemary Johnson 2:40:45
F65+ (Orange - 4.9 km, 9 controls)
1 Shirley Donald 2:04:42
2 Nancy Lindeman 2:22:49
3 Joan Roos 2:33:03
FOpen (Orange - 4.9 km, 9 controls)
1 Catherine Schnurrenberger MSP (WinSplits to be updated with this)
MOpen (Orange - 4.9 km, 9 controls)
1 Alan Houser 1:55:41
James McPherson MSP (WinSplits to be updated with this)
F40+ (Green - 6.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Ann Jochnick 1:32:56
Terry Farrah MSP
M55+ (Green - 6.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Philip Hawkes-Teeter 1:33:35
2 Max Suter 1:53:32
3 Joe Hallett 2:01:23
M65+ (Green - 6.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Bob Cooley 1:45:34
2 Adolf Jochnick 2:05:27
Tom Jahn MSP
MOpen (Green - 6.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Werner Haag 1:35:04
2 Peter Olsten 2:04:52
3 Trevor Pering 2:24:48
F-21+ (Red - 7.8 km, 10 controls)
1 Marie-Catherine Bruno 1:15:12
2 Sharon Crawford 1:19:33
3 Nadezda Dvorko 1:34:10 (WinSplits to be updated with this)
4 Julie Raymond 1:43:09
5 Charlotte MacNaughton 1:52:34
6 Kerie Raymond 2:04:45
M40+ (Red - 7.8 km, 10 controls)
1 Matthias Kohler 1:24:55
2 Mike Poulsen 1:38:28
3 Adrian Zissos 1:43:32
4 Bob Baylor 1:57:26
5 Scott Drumm 2:34:36
Scott Novotny MSP (lost E-stick)
MOpen (Red - 7.8 km, 10 controls)
1 Dan Stoll-Hadayia 1:18:14
2 Jonas Sandstrom 1:21:25
FAmazon (Blue - 8.2 km, 13 controls)
1 Brenda Giese 2:00:22
M-21+ (Blue - 8.2 km, 13 controls)
1 Margus Hallik 53:21
2 Olof Carmel 1:03:20
3 Terry Daley 1:17:05
4 Greg Walker 1:20:26
5 Randall McGarvey 1:24:34
6 Neil Hunt 1:27:56
7 Ken Walker, Sr 1:28:22 (WinSplits to be updated with this time)
8 Jeff Schloss 1:37:18
9 Jeff Coons 1:37:49
10 Ted Weber 1:45:18
11 Syd Reader 1:52:00
12 Marty Hawkes-Teeter 2:01:36
13 Dmitri Soloviev 2:17:35
Mark Nadell MSP
Day 2 – Tahoe Cross Country
Thursday, January 31, 2008
While the competition raged at Tahoe Donner, Chuck Lyda and Carol Schick-Lyda were hard at work at Tahoe Cross Country preparing the courses for the next day. Again, the extreme snow fall for the past week caused the course setters to simplify the design. In this case, Chuck had to set aside some great Red and Green course designs and use a shortened version of the Blue course, because his time would have to be largely devoted to making the needed secondary trails between the groomed trails. Fortunately, these shortened courses worked very nicely. With fewer unique courses, Chuck and Carol had fewer secondary trails to create, and they were just barely able to finish the setup under very trying conditions, and it meant last-minute course and map changes. Fortunately, Bob Cooley brought two printers and was staying just a couple of blocks away from me. So, after Chuck and Carol made the exhausting drive up Donner Pass to my cabin, where they gave me their changes, I worked with Bob to input the changes and print the maps. By 11 PM, we were ready except for a few controls and trails in the morning.
Tahoe Cross Country (otherwise known as Burton Creek for our summer events) is known for its low rolling hills and flat areas that are very fast to skate. The courses that Chuck and Carol set took advantage of this mostly flat terrain and added some new secondary trails, thereby offering some new choices never before presented to our skiers. Because the courses were very fast, Chuck designed them to be long (the Blue course was nearly 20 km on the optimal route), but the times were perfect, with the Blue course winner finishing in 80 minutes.
As always, the starts crew, led by Sharon Crawford, went right to work setting up the start area, this time on the hill above the trail center lodge. Tom Jahn and Adolf Jochnick had registration running when people showed up, and Rosemary Johnson and Terry Farrah had E-punch running. At 10, we ran everyone to the starts, and got them out on the trails as soon as possible. With some extra help from Carol Schick-Lyda and Matthias Kohler on a snowmobile, we were even able to quickly synchronize the electronic punch units (something I had forgotten to do in my sleep-deprived state the day before).
In addition to our preregistered competitors, the resort manager, Kevin Murnane, returned for a second year of racing on our courses. It was great seeing him arrive at the starting area ready to go, and even better hearing him talk about his course afterwards. For the day, we had slightly fewer people (48) than the day before, but that was still outstanding attendance for a weekday ski-O (it's even outstanding for a weekend event).
A new storm was brewing, and it unleashed its fury as our event came to a close. The snowfall would increase with time, but didn't interfere with the competition. After the event, our control pickup crew, many of them our Blue and Red course skiers, went out on skis, snowshoes, and a snowmobile to pick the controls. By 4:30 there was no evidence of the event, with everything picked up and the tracks from competitors quickly being buried under a fresh foot or two of snow.
Day-2 Results
WinSplits (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=8889) – RouteGadget (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=118&kieli=)
Pl Name Time
FOpen (White - 3.6 km, 8 controls)
1 Emily Hann 1:30:18
MOpen (White - 3.6 km, 8 controls)
1 Jim McPherson 1:36:36
F55+ (Orange - 5.1 km, 9 controls)
1 Susan Hawkes-Teeter 1:08:35
2 Patty Clemo 1:22:46
3 Julie Pohl 1:30:01
4 Jennifer Kerr 1:41:51
5 Rosemary Johnson 1:50:25
6 Anndy Wiselogle 2:03:20
F65+ (Orange - 5.1 km, 9 controls)
1 Shirley Donald 1:28:44
2 Joan Roos 2:00:16
3 Nancy Lindeman 2:04:14
FOpen (Orange - 5.1 km, 9 controls)
1 Jennifer Heckendorn 1:22:46
2 Terry Farrah 1:38:44
MOpen (Orange - 5.1 km, 9 controls)
1 Dave Best 1:27:35
2 Alan Houser 1:55:33
F40+ (Green - 6.7 km, 9 controls)
1 Kerie Raymond 1:11:18
2 Ann Jochnick 1:14:11
M55+ (Green - 6.7 km, 9 controls)
1 Philip Hawkes-Teeter 1:17:15
2 Joe Hallett 1:24:00
3 Max Suter 1:25:47
M65+ (Green - 6.7 km, 9 controls)
1 Tom Jahn 1:26:10
2 Bob Cooley 1:34:20
3 Adolf Jochnick 1:38:54
MOpen (Green - 6.7 km, 9 controls)
1 Werner Haag 1:07:20
2 Peter Olsten 1:23:07
3 Trevor Pering 1:45:25
F-21+ (Red - 8.8 km, 10 controls)
1 Nadezda Dvorko 59:18
2 Marie-Catherine Bruno 1:00:04
3 Julie Raymond 1:15:32
4 Charlotte MacNaughton 1:18:49
5 Sharon Crawford 1:19:34
M40+ (Red - 8.8 km, 10 controls)
1 Adrian Zissos 1:06:53
2 Bob Baylor 1:17:00
3 Mike Poulsen 1:19:40
4 Scott Novotny 2:11:23
5 Scott Drumm 2:47:19
Matthias Kohler MSP
MOpen (Red - 8.8 km, 10 controls)
1 Jonas Sandstrom 53:28
FAmazon (Blue - 12.1 km, 14 controls)
1 Brenda Giese 2:34:34
M-21+ (Blue - 12.1 km, 14 controls)
1 Margus Hallik 1:20:36
2 Greg Walker 1:26:53
3 Randall McGarvey 1:34:41
4 Ken Walker, Sr 1:37:20
5 Neil Hunt 1:39:39
6 Kevin Murnane 1:44:28
7 Marty Hawkes-Teeter 2:00:42
8 Dmitri Soloviev 2:34:26
9 Syd Reader 2:45:13
Day 3 – Royal Gorge Cross Country (Long Courses)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
After the day-2 event, everybody had a rest day to enjoy the Lake Tahoe region under another fresh blanket of snow. Bob Baylor, the day-3 course setter, Alan Houser, Helene Gordon, and I, however, were busy setting the day-3 courses on the expansive Royal Gorge trail system. Again, we had long courses, but these were in hillier terrain that would be even more physical than what we had earlier. With a day of rest, the competitors would be fresh for this very physical challenge. Unlike the other resorts we use, Royal Gorge doesn't allow skiers to go off the mapped trails. They do let us add a handful of secondary trails, which we added this year to change up the trail system for the competitors with some new route choices. When I helped make those trails in three feet of fresh powder snow, I definitely appreciated the time-consuming work done by the course setters on the previous days.
The conditions were perfect for this event with chilly temperatures all day, so the snow was great for starting at any time (i.e., there was no warm sun to turn the snow to slush in the late morning). Unfortunately, Interstate 80 had been closed at Auburn for snow conditions and accidents, so some of our competitors were late on arriving, but we were able to start everyone who showed up—though a couple felt that they had to do shorter courses than they would normally like.
Again, most of the courses were just the right length and difficulty for a long course. The winning time for the M-21+ class on the very hilly 19-km Blue course was 76:28, and the winning time for the F-21+ class on a 13-km Red course was 53:15. Both of the M-21+ and F-21+ winners had terrific finish times. The times on the other courses were within our expectations. The only exception was the White course, which I understand was a bit long (I'll adjust the long course specifications for white for the future).
I had to leave the event early to help Matthias Kohler set up the day-4 event. In my place, Brenda Giese readily stepped in and made sure that everything ran smoothly and that we cleaned up after the event. It was great to leave knowing that someone would take care of everything.
Day-3 Results
WinSplits (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=8898) – RouteGadget (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=119&kieli=)
Pl Name Time
FOpen (White - 4.0 km, 7 controls)
1 Johanna Karras 1:17:46
2 Terry Farrah 1:27:48
3 Nina Seemann 1:33:13
MOpen (White - 4.0 km, 7 controls)
Andrejus Masalkovas DNF
F55+ (Orange - 6.0 km, 7 controls)
1 Patty Clemo 1:20:40
2 Susan Hawkes-Teeter 1:29:35
3 Julie Pohl 1:41:24
4 Rosemary Johnson 2:08:53
5 Jennifer Kerr 2:25:50
6 Anndy Wiselogle 2:44:28
F65+ (Orange - 6.0 km, 7 controls)
1 Shirley Donald 1:34:35
2 Nancy Lindeman 2:18:59
3 Joan Roos 2:20:48
FOpen (Orange - 6.0 km, 7 controls)
1 Jennifer Heckendorn 1:30:38
2 Marie-Josee Payayre 1:38:22
MOpen (Orange - 6.0 km, 7 controls)
Matthew Tyler MSP
F-20 (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
Gabija Masalkovaite DNF
Karina Masalkovaite DNF
F40+ (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Kerie Raymond 1:10:44
2 Ann Jochnick 1:15:05
FOpen (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Debbie Pilkey 1:50:41
M-16 (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Sam Zabell 1:53:36
M55+ (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Max Suter 1:25:21
2 Philip Hawkes-Teeter 1:28:05
3 Joe Hallett 1:43:41
M65+ (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Tom Jahn 1:26:20
2 Bob Cooley 1:33:55
3 Adolf Jochnick 1:33:56
MOpen (Green - 7.5 km, 8 controls)
1 Francois Leonard 1:04:44
2 Peter Olsten 1:23:36
3 Trevor Pering 2:01:01
Juozas Martisius MSP
F-21+ (Red - 8.0 km, 8 controls)
1 Nadezda Dvorko 53:15
2 Marie-Catherine Bruno 58:23
3 Julie Raymond 1:05:59
4 Sharon Crawford 1:09:28
5 Charlotte MacNaughton 1:16:22
M40+ (Red - 8.0 km, 8 controls)
1 Matthias Kohler 1:01:37
2 Adrian Zissos 1:09:44
3 Mike Poulsen 1:18:33
4 Kent Ohlund 1:33:30
5 Joel Grasmeyer 1:33:37
6 Scott Drumm 1:44:48
Jonas Libell MSP
FAmazon (Blue - 13.4 km, 11 controls)
1 Brenda Giese 2:48:45
M-21+ (Blue - 13.4 km, 11 controls)
1 Margus Hallik 1:16:28
2 Greg Walker 1:22:39
3 Jonas Sandstrom 1:26:09
4 Randall McGarvey 1:28:19
5 Ken Walker, Sr 1:40:01
6 Neil Hunt 1:40:03
7 Reid Garrett 1:41:00
8 Carl Reid 1:41:37
9 Marty Hawkes-Teeter 2:16:22
10 Dmitri Soloviev 2:36:13
11 Syd Reader 3:00:18
William Owens MSP
Day 4 – Auburn Ski Club Training Center (Motala)
Sunday, February 3, 2008
We saved one of our favorite venues, with its intricate maze of trails, for the last day of competition. What we didn't realize was that Mother Nature was saving her biggest snow storm for our finale. The night before the event, over two feet of snow was dumped on us at the higher elevations. The groomer was busy from 4 AM until our first starts around 10:30 grooming the intricate network of trails. Starts were delayed again, this time because of the late grooming and because the highway was once again closed in both directions. Many people called in fearing that our last event would be canceled. Nothing doing—we were open and ready for business. As long as the resort is open, we're open, as many found out.
Thanks to a tremendous effort by Matthias Kohler, all our controls were up by the time we started our first competitor. Both Matthias and I were out there making secondary trails between groomed trails, again it's never easy when the snow is two feet deep with powder. By 10:30, we got word from the groomers that everything was done, so we started the first skiers. Unfortunately, we soon found out that a key trail used by nearly all of the courses had not been groomed. Unlike the ungroomed trail on day 1, this one was a semi long one that didn't have another groomed trail going along side it. When Sharon Crawford, Neil Hunt, and Jennifer Heckendorn encountered that trail, they were in for a very rude awakening. Like the true champions that they were, they dived right in and made the first trails into the sea of white snow, though I know that they were anything but happy about that. All three and those who followed them paid dearly for making those initial trails. We decided to eliminate the times for the first legs on that trail for each course, because of the dramatic time differences between the first to enter that ungroomed area and those who were able to ski in on their established tracks. There was one other ungroomed trail near the Go control, but the options around that didn't change the competition, so we let those times stand. Our many apologies for those ungroomed trails. We wouldn't have started the courses then if we had known about their ungroomed state. It's easy to blame the groomers but frankly the event couldn't have happened without their tremendous effort, and I can understand how it would be easy to forget one or two trails. For my part, I learned how to check their work better, and to make adjustments if necessary at the beginning of the event.
The courses for this event were all in a small 1 square-kilometer area, so it was necessary to use multiple maps for our longer courses. Competitors would ski the course on one map, then come in and exchange maps before skiing a second or possibly a third course. Unfortunately, each of these maps visited the ungroomed Black Hole trail, but the subsequent trips to that area were much easier for the competitors. Most persevered and completed their courses.
Thanks to superb efforts by many people, we did what some thought would be impossible, and held an event when most organizations would cancel an event. When the highway opened, the competitors came streaming in and we started everyone who showed up. In all, 43 competed (outstanding for blizzard conditions), and another 5 or 10 came by to watch (they were too exhausted from digging out to ski that day). The temperatures were especially low that day, but Matthias Kohler stayed at the map exchange nearly all day (with occasional relief) while Shirley Donald managed the starts. We ran the event an hour longer than usual so everyone would have a chance to start and do a course. Fortunately, with everything so close to the starts, the control pickup was easier, so we needed less time for that.
Day-4 Results
WinSplits (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=8917) – RouteGadget (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=120&kieli=)
Championship times in parentheses are adjusted to remove the first leg into and out of the ungroomed Black Hole trail.
Pl Name Club Time
FOpen (White - 1.9 km, 10 controls)
1 Emily Hann BAOC 58:21
2 Karina Masalkovaite BAOC 1:03:36
3 Gabija Masalkovaite BAOC 1:03:37
MOpen (White - 1.9 km, 10 controls)
1 Matthew Tyler GCO 24:36
2 Juozas Martisius BAOC 1:03:36
F55+ (Orange - 3.4 km, 9 controls)
1 Susan Hawkes-Teeter EMPO 57:58 (0:36:30)
2 Patty Clemo BAOC 1:11:26 (0:45:18)
3 Julie Pohl CROC 1:13:47 (0:49:06)
4 Jennifer Kerr GCO 1:17:15 (0:54:33)
Anndy Wiselogle CROC MSP
F65+ (Orange - 3.4 km, 9 controls)
1 Shirley Donald KOC 1:29:37 (0:59:17)
2 Nancy Lindeman BAOC 3:08:03 (1:34:37)
FOpen (Orange - 3.4 km, 9 controls)
1 Trinka Gillis BAOC 1:06:00 (0:44:34)
2 Marie-Josee Parayre BAOC 1:21:32 (0:59:31)
3 Jennifer Heckendorn 1:35:24 (1:00:53)
Terry Farrah BAOC DNF
MOpen (Orange - 3.4 km, 9 controls)
1 Bjorn Widerstrom BAOC 58:27 (0:41:41)
F40+ (Green - 3.3 km, 15 controls)
1 Ann Jochnick NEOC 1:19:05 (0:59:32)
2 Kerie Raymond CROC 1:37:43 (0:59:22)
FOpen (Green - 3.3 km, 15 controls)
1 Debbie Pilkey Utah OC 2:03:48 (1:30:33)
M55+ (Green - 3.3 km, 15 controls)
1 Philip Hawkes-Teeter EMPO 1:11:22 (0:57:13)
2 Max Suter TSN 1:20:47 (1:01:08)
3 Joe Hallett CROC 1:43:49 (1:20:49)
M65+ (Green - 3.3 km, 15 controls)
1 Bob Cooley BAOC 1:25:45 (1:09:22)
Tom Jahn USOF MSP
Adolf Jochnick NEOC MSP
MOpen (Green - 3.3 km, 15 controls)
1 Francois Leonard BAOC 1:10:24 (0:58:40)
F-21+ (Red - 3.3 km, 19 controls)
1 Nadezda Dvorko 1:04:38 (0:56:12)
2 Julie Raymond BAOC 1:23:57 (1:08:22)
3 Sharon Crawford RMOC 1:28:30 (1:10:04)
4 Charlotte MacNaughton FWOC 1:28:42 (1:13:41)
M40+ (Red - 3.3 km, 19 controls)
1 Adrian Zissos FWOC 1:16:56 (1:03:36)
2 Tapio Karras BAOC 1:33:34 (1:21:35)
3 Kent Ohlund BAOC 1:45:05 (1:31:24)
4 Mike Poulsen USOF 1:47:12 (1:31:26)
5 Andrejus Masalkovas BAOC 1:52:43 (1:36:13)
6 Wiliam Owens 2:08:14 (1:47:57)
Scott Drumm CROC DNF
Bob Baylor BAOC MSP
M-21+ (Blue - 4.0 km, 25 controls)
1 Margus Hallik OOC 1:05:03 (0:57:24)
2 Greg Walker CSU 1:19:50 (1:09:58)
3 Jonas Sandstrom COF 1:25:27 (1:17:13)
4 Randall McGarvey ROC 1:26:57 (1:15:00)
5 Marie-Catherine Bruno COF 1:26:59 (1:16:18) (*)
6 Ken Walker Sr CSU 1:40:17 (1:25:20)
7 Joel Grasmeyer Utah OC 1:58:29 (1:43:33)
Neil Hunt BAOC MSP
(*) Marie-Catherine chose to compete in the M-21+ class instead of FAmazon.
The Championship
This championship saw the return of many competitors from last year, including our 2007 champions (Greg Walker, Marie-Catherine Bruno, Brenda Giese, and Stephen Miller [only course setting this year]). We were also introduced to two terrific athletes in Margus Hallik, who I enjoyed meeting two years ago at the U.S. Ski-O Championships, and Nadezda Dvorko of St. Petersburg in Russia. Both of these terrific skiers easily dominated their classes, though Nadezda didn't start winning until day 2. Greg Walker would compete against the unrelenting Margus Hallik each day, with Margus finishing first each day. Marie-Catherine Bruno competed against Nadezda Dvorko neck and neck until the last day, when Marie-Catherine switched classes and competed with the boys in the M-21+ class. Brenda Giese revived the Amazon class, a class set up for women wanting to compete against one another on the longest course. Stephen Miller put in a huge effort to design the Day 1 courses, and had another ski-O event for juniors that he was organizing after our event. We definitely missed his fast skiing on the other days, but I was tremendously grateful to have him do the courses for the first day.
For the F40+ and M40+ classes, Ann Jochnick competed closely with Kerie Raymond, and won the F40+ class. Although Kerie had better times on the days they competed against one another, Ann competed on the same course every day and dominated the scoring. Adrian Zissos and Matthias Kohler were close competitors in the M40+ class, alternating as winner from one day to the next. In the end, Matthias had one MSP that cost him dearly on day 2, so Adrian won for the class.
For the F55+ and M55+ classes, Susan Hawks-Teeter returned in 2008 and took command of her class, barely edging out Patty Clemo. Susan's husband, Philip, joined in on the fun this year, and dominated the M55+ class in three out of the four events. I'm also thankful for Susan and Philip bringing their son, Marty, who competed in the M-21+ class, and making it easy for Nadezda Dvorko and her family (including Dmitri Soloviev) to join in on the competition.
For the new F65+ and M65+ classes, Shirley Donald and Bob Cooley took the honors. Shirley was the unrelenting winner each day, even though she also helped get our events going each day and often worked the starts to the last minute. Bob Cooley dominated two of our events against the ever present Adolf Jochnick and Tom Jahn, but DNFs on the last day for Adolf and Tom left Bob alone at the top.
For skiers competing out of their gender age groups, new comer, Jonas Sandstrom won M-Red before joining his age group on the last days. On the Green course, Debbie Pilkey was the only F-Green competitor the last two days, so she took honors, and Francois Leonard came the last two days to tie with Werner Haag, but the tie breaker goes to the last events, so Francois took honors. On the Orange course, Jennifer Heckendorn took honors despite not being happy with breaking a trail for others to use on day 4, and Alan Houser took honors for finishes on the first two days plus volunteering for the day-3 setup. For the White course, Emily Hann raced three days and won each time, even on the third day when she had competitors; Matthew Tyler and Jim McPherson tied, but the tie breaker went to Matthew for his day-4 performance.
The championship scoring system worked well, it but didn't have anything for the automatic removing of times for discarded legs. That meant that I had to manually change the day-4 results and double (and triple) check the results afterwards. Thanks to Neil Hunt, Randal McGarvy, Dmitri Soloviev, and a couple others for pointing out inconsistencies in my accounting. Eventually, I finished the results with a lot of help from the E-punch crew. More things learned for next year...
Note: The final standings omit the first legs into and out of the ungroomed Black Hole trail on Day 4. Given the length of this trail, there were extreme differences in time for participants based on whether they were the first to reach this trail (i.e., the first participants to reach this trail spent a significant amount of extra time making the first trail through 2–3 feet of fresh snow).
Championship Results
Class Day-1 TDXC Day-2 TXC Day-3 RGXC Day-4 ASC Competition Volunteer Absence Grand Final
Name Club Time Score Time Score Time Score Time Score Days Total Days Total Days Total Total Rank
F-White
Emily Hann BAOC 2:09:23 100.00 1:30:18 100.00 a 0.00 0:58:21 100.00 3 300.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 390.00 1
Johanna Karras BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 1:17:46 100.00 a 0.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 190.00 2
Gabija Masalkovaite BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 F-20 0.00 1:03:36 91.75 1 91.75 0 0.00 1 82.57 174.32 3
Karina Masalkovaite BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 F-20 0.00 1:03:36 91.75 1 91.75 0 0.00 1 82.57 174.32 3
Nina Seemann a 0.00 a 0.00 1:33:13 83.43 a 0.00 1 83.43 0 0.00 1 75.08 158.51 5
Terry Farrah BAOC F40+ 0.00 F-Orange 0.00 1:27:48 88.57 F-Orange 0.00 1 88.57 0 0.00 0 0.00 88.57 6
M-White
Matthew Tyler GCO a 0.00 a 0.00 M-Orange 0.00 0:24:36 100.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 190.01 1
Jim McPherson BAOC M-Orange 0.00 1:36:36 100.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 190.00 2
Juozas Martisius BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 M-Green 0.00 1:03:36 38.68 1 38.68 0 0.00 1 34.81 73.49 3
Andrejus Masalkovas BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 DNF 25.00 M40+ 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 4*
F55+ (Orange)
Susan Hawkes-Teeter EMPO 1:45:14 84.64 1:08:35 100.00 1:29:35 90.05 0:36:30 100.00 4 374.68 0 0.00 0 0.00 374.68 1
Patty Clemo BAOC 1:29:04 100.00 1:22:46 82.86 1:20:40 100.00 0:45:18 80.57 4 363.44 0 0.00 0 0.00 363.44 2
Julie Pohl CROC 1:43:51 85.76 1:30:01 76.19 1:41:24 79.55 0:49:06 74.34 4 315.85 0 0.00 0 0.00 315.85 3
Jennifer Kerr GCO 1:54:26 77.83 1:41:51 67.34 2:25:50 55.31 0:54:33 66.91 4 267.40 0 0.00 0 0.00 267.40 4
Rosemary Johnson BAOC 2:40:45 55.41 1:50:25 62.11 2:08:53 62.59 a 0.00 3 180.11 0 0.00 1 54.03 234.14 5
Anndy Wiselogle CROC 2:39:00 56.02 2:03:20 55.61 2:44:28 49.05 MSP 25.00 4 185.67 0 0.00 0 0.00 185.67 6
Helene Gordon BAOC 1:55:40 77.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 77.00 0 0.00 1 69.30 146.31 7
F65+ (Orange)
Shirley Donald KOC 2:04:42 100.00 1:28:44 100.00 1:34:35 100.00 0:59:17 100.00 4 400.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 400.00 1
Nancy Lindeman BAOC 2:22:49 87.31 2:04:14 71.42 2:18:59 68.05 1:34:37 62.66 4 289.45 0 0.00 0 0.00 289.45 2
Joan Roos BAOC 2:33:03 81.48 2:00:16 73.78 2:20:48 67.18 a 0.00 3 222.43 0 0.00 1 66.73 289.16 3
F-Orange
Jennifer Heckendorn BAOC a 0.00 1:22:46 100.00 1:30:38 100.00 1:00:53 73.20 3 273.20 0 0.00 1 81.96 355.16 1
Marie-Josee Payayre BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 1:38:22 92.14 0:59:31 74.88 2 167.02 0 0.00 2 150.32 317.34 2
Trinka Gillis BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 0:44:34 100.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.01 190.01 3
Terry Farrah BAOC F40+ 0.00 1:38:44 83.83 F-White 0.00 DNF 25.00 2 108.83 0 0.00 0 0.00 108.83 4
Catherine Schnurrenberger MSP 25.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 5*
M-Orange
Alan Houser BAOC 1:55:41 100.00 1:55:33 75.80 a 0.00 a 0.00 2 175.80 0 0.00 2 158.22 334.01 1
Bjorn Widerstrom BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 0:41:41 100.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.01 190.01 2**
Dave Best BAOC a 0.00 1:27:35 100.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 190.00 3**
James McPherson BAOC MSP 25.00 M-White 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 4*
Matthew Tyler GCO a 0.00 a 0.00 MSP 25.00 M-White 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 4*
F-20 (Green)
Gabija Masalkovaite BAOC a 0.00 a 0 DNF 25.00 F-White 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 1*
Karina Masalkovaite BAOC a 0.00 a 0 DNF 25.00 F-White 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 1*
F40+ (Green)
Ann Jochnick NEOC 1:32:56 100.00 1:14:11 96.11 1:15:05 94.21 0:59:32 99.72 4 390.04 0 0.00 0 0.00 390.04 1
Kerie Raymond CROC F-21+ 0.00 1:11:18 100.00 1:10:44 100.00 0:59:22 100.00 3 300.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 300.00 2
Terry Farrah BAOC MSP 25.00 F-Orange 0.00 F-White 0.00 F-Orange 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 25.00 3*
F-Green
Debbie Pilkey Utah OC a 0.00 a 0.00 1:50:41 100.00 1:30:33 100.00 2 200.00 0 0.00 2 180.00 380.00 1
M-16 (Green)
Sam Zabell a 0.00 a 0.00 1:53:36 100.00 a 0.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 190.00 1
M55+ (Green)
P. Hawkes-Teeter EMPO 1:33:35 100.00 1:17:15 100.00 1:28:05 96.90 0:57:13 100.00 4 396.90 0 0.00 0 0.00 396.90 1
Max Suter TSN 1:53:32 82.43 1:25:47 90.05 1:25:21 100.00 1:01:08 93.59 4 366.07 0 0.00 0 0.00 366.07 2
Joe Hallett CROC 2:01:23 77.10 1:24:00 91.96 1:43:41 82.32 1:20:49 70.80 4 322.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 322.18 3
M65+ (Green)
Bob Cooley BAOC 1:45:34 100.00 1:34:20 91.34 1:33:55 91.93 1:05:48 100.00 4 383.27 0 0.00 0 0.00 383.27 1
Adolf Jochnick NEOC 2:05:27 84.15 1:38:54 87.13 1:33:56 91.91 MSP 25.00 4 288.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 288.18 2
Tom Jahn USOF MSP 25.00 1:26:10 100.00 1:26:20 100.00 MSP 25.00 4 250.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 250.00 3
M-Green
Francois Leonard BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 1:04:44 100.00 0:58:40 100.00 2 200.01 0 0.00 2 180.01 380.02 1
Werner Haag BAOC 1:35:04 100.00 1:07:30 100.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 2 200.00 0 0.00 2 180.00 380.00 2
Peter Olsten BAOC 2:04:52 76.13 1:23:07 81.21 1:23:36 77.43 a 0.00 3 234.78 0 0.00 2 140.87 375.64 3
Trevor Pering BAOC 2:24:48 65.65 1:45:25 64.03 2:01:01 53.49 a 0.00 3 183.18 0 0.00 2 109.91 293.08 4
Juozas Martisius BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 MSP 25.00 M-White 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 5*
Matthew Tyler USOF a 0.00 a 0.00 MSP 25.00 a 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 5*
F-21+ (Red)
Nadezda Dvorko StPbg 1:34:10 79.86 0:59:18 100.00 0:53:15 100.00 0:56:12 100.00 4 379.86 0 0.00 0 0.00 379.86 1
Sharon Crawford RMOC 1:19:33 94.53 1:19:34 74.53 1:09:28 76.66 1:10:04 80.21 4 325.93 0 0.00 0 0.00 325.93 2
Julie Raymond BAOC 1:43:09 72.90 1:15:32 78.51 1:05:59 80.70 1:08:22 82.20 4 314.32 0 0.00 0 0.00 314.32 3
Marie-Catherine Bruno COF 1:15:12 100.00 1:00:04 98.72 0:58:23 91.21 M-21+ 0.00 3 289.93 0 0.00 0 0.00 289.93 4
C. MacNaughton FWOC 1:52:34 66.80 1:18:49 75.24 1:16:22 69.73 1:13:41 76.27 4 288.04 0 0.00 0 0.00 288.04 5
Kerie Raymond CROC 2:04:45 60.28 (F40+) 0.00 F40+ 0.00 F40+ 0.00 1 60.28 0 0.00 0 0.00 60.28 6
M40+ (Red)
Adrian Zissos FWOC 1:43:32 82.02 1:06:53 100.00 1:09:44 88.36 1:03:36 100.00 4 370.38 0 0.00 0 0.00 370.38 1
Matthias Kohler BAOC 1:24:55 100.00 MSP 25.00 1:01:37 100.00 v 0.00 3 225.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 325.00 2
Mike Poulsen CROC 1:38:28 86.24 1:19:40 83.95 1:18:33 78.44 1:31:26 69.56 4 318.19 0 0.00 0 0.00 318.19 3
Bob Baylor BAOC 1:57:26 72.31 1:17:00 86.86 v 0.00 MSP 25.00 3 184.17 1 86.86 0 0.00 271.03 4
Kent Ohlund BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 1:33:30 65.90 1:31:24 69.58 2 135.48 0 0.00 2 121.94 257.42 5
Scott Drumm CROC 2:34:36 54.93 2:47:19 39.97 1:44:48 58.79 DNF 25.00 4 178.70 0 0.00 0 0.00 178.70 6
Tapio Karras BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1:21:35 77.80 1 77.96 0 0.00 1 70.16 148.12 7
Scott Novotny BAOC DNF 25.00 2:11:23 50.91 a 0.00 a 0.00 2 75.91 0 0.00 2 68.32 144.22 8
Andrejus Masalkovas BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 M-White 0.00 1:36:16 66.07 1 66.07 0 0.00 1 59.46 125.53 9
William Owens a 0.00 a 0.00 M-21+ 0.00 1:47:57 58.92 1 58.92 0 0.00 1 53.02 111.94 10
Jonas Libel BAOC a 0.00 a 0.00 MSP 25.00 a 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 11
M-Red
Jonas Sandstrom COF 1:21:25 96.09 0:53:28 100.00 M-21+ 0.00 M-21+ 0.00 2 196.09 0 0.00 0 0.00 196.09 1
Joe Grasmeyer Utah OC a 0.00 a 0.00 1:33:37 100.00 M-21+ 0.00 2 100.00 0 0.00 2 90.01 190.01 2**
Dan Stoll-Hadayia BAOC 1:18:14 100.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 100.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 190.00 3**
Amazon (Blue)
Brenda Giese BAOC 2:00:22 100.00 2:34:34 100.00 2:48:45 100.00 a 0.00 3 300.00 0 0.00 1 90.00 390.00 1
M-21+ (Blue)
Margus Hallik OOC 0:53:21 100.00 1:20:36 100.00 1:16:28 100.00 0:57:24 100.00 4 400.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 400.00 1
Greg Walker CSU 1:20:26 66.33 1:26:53 92.77 1:22:39 92.52 1:09:58 82.04 4 333.65 0 0.00 0 0.00 333.65 2
Randall McGarvey ROC 1:24:34 63.09 1:34:41 85.13 1:28:19 86.58 1:15:00 76.53 4 311.33 0 0.00 0 0.00 311.33 3
Ken Walker Sr CSU 1:28:22 60.37 1:37:20 82.81 1:40:01 76.45 1:25:20 67.27 4 286.90 0 0.00 0 0.00 286.90 4
Neil Hunt BAOC 1:27:56 60.67 1:39:39 80.88 1:40:03 76.43 MSP 25.00 4 242.98 0 0.00 0 0.00 242.98 5
Marty Hawkes-Teeter EMPO 2:01:36 43.87 2:00:42 66.78 2:16:22 56.07 a 0.00 3 166.72 0 0.00 1 50.02 216.74 6
Syd Reader BAOC 1:52:00 47.63 2:45:13 48.78 3:00:18 42.41 a 0.00 3 138.83 0 0.00 1 41.65 180.48 7
Jonas Sandstrom COF M-Red 0.00 M-Red 0.00 1:26:09 88.76 1:17:13 74.34 2 163.10 0 0.00 0 0.00 163.10 8
Olof Carmel 1:03:20 84.24 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 84.24 0 0.00 1 75.81 160.05 9
Kevin Murnane a 0.00 1:44:28 77.15 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 77.15 0 0.00 1 69.44 146.59 10
Reid Garrett a 0.00 a 0.00 1:41:00 75.71 a 0.00 1 75.71 0 0.00 1 68.14 143.85 11
Carl Reid a 0.00 a 0.00 1:41:37 75.25 a 0.00 1 75.25 0 0.00 1 67.73 142.98 12
Dimitri Soloviev EMPO 2:17:35 38.78 2:34:26 52.19 2:36:13 48.95 M-Orange 0.00 2 139.92 0 0.00 0 00.00 139.92 13
Terry Daley 1:17:05 69.21 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 69.21 0 0.00 1 62.29 131.50 14
Joe Grasmeyer Utah OC a 0.00 a 0.00 M-Red 0.00 1:43:33 55.43 1 55.43 0 0.00 1 49.89 105.32 15
Jeff Schloss 1:37:18 54.83 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 54.83 0 0.00 1 49.35 104.18 16
Jeff Coons 1:37:49 54.54 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 54.54 0 0.00 1 49.09 103.63 17
Ted Weber 1:45:18 50.66 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 50.66 0 0.00 1 45.60 96.26 18
Marie-Catherine Bruno COF F-21+ 0.00 F-21+ 0.00 F-21+ 0.00 1:16:18 75.23 1 75.23 0 0.00 0 0.00 75.23 19
William Owens a 0.00 a 0.00 MSP 25.00 a 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 20*
Mark Nadell MSP 25.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 a 0.00 1 25.00 0 0.00 1 22.50 47.50 20*
Notes:
* Not qualified for a medal, because this person did not complete a course for this class.
** Tie scores broken first by comparing the latest common event, then by comparing scores at the last-attended events.
10-Feb-08: Corrections made to the F55+, M55+, and F65+ class scores--their totals previously did not include Day-4 scores.
Minor correction to the points in F40+ without changing placement.
12-Feb-08: Corrections made for M-orange for Day 1 and final totals for McPherson.
Researching Dimitry Soloviev's missing Day-2 time (no download?).
14-Feb-08: Adjusted Day-4 time and score, and final score, for Julie Raymond.
15-Feb-08: Schnurrenberger MSP on Day 1 (punched out of order).
18-Feb-08: Updated James McPherson as MSP on Day 1, and resolved class conflict question for Nadezda Dvorko on Day 1.
_______________
DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)
MSP = Mispunched (one or more controls wrong)