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1999 BAOC Advanced Rankings

by Joe Scarborough, Technical Director

The news for 1999 is that Penny DeMoss nips George Minarik in the Green course rankings, Kent Ohlund regains Red over Tapio Karras, and James Scarborough retains the top spot on Blue. Sarah Minarik remains the club's top Brown age-group competitor, while Dennis Wildfogel finishes on top of the all-comers list.

The annual club rankings reflect relative performance between age-group competitors (except Brown) at A and B level BAOC events, the best in terms of fairness and challenge, over calendar 1999. To appear on the ranking lists, you must be a club member and have competed in at least four of 10 ranking events during the year (three on Brown). The 1999 events were Indian Valley, Sunol, Annadel, Joe Grant, Big Basin, China Camp, Spooner 1 and 2, Briones, and Calero.

Below you will find rankings and commentary for the Brown, Green, Red, and Blue courses, as well as my rankings philosophy. Send comments, corrections, and suggestions to me at joeorienteer.com

These lists are also posted on the technical pages at my Website, along with results from previous years. See also my unofficial 1999 Advanced Long List, which compares performances on different courses based on scores from the four ranking lists. (Club membership is not a criterion to be on the Advanced Long List.) I hope to eventually include listings going back to the first club rankings in 1978 on my Website; also expect an update of the description of methodology.

Congratulations to everyone, especially to those whose orienteering year was successful, ranking-wise or otherwise. Hopefully, the rankings gave you some measure of your progress towards your goals, whatever they may be and wherever you appear on the list. I know there were many noteworthy accomplishments during the year that I may have overlooked. I apologize.


Brown

Dennis, last year's top rankee, finished the season five points ahead of new member Anneliese Steuben. Dennis won two of his three races Indian Valley and Sunol. Anneliese also had two wins including a very impressive 115.3 at China Camp. Their only head-to-head race was at Indian Valley, with Dennis handily ahead of fourth-place Anneliese.

Sarah MInarik had only 2 Brown scores as she divided her runs with Green and, I have no doubt, poison oak played its part. Her two Brown runs came at Spooner Lake and gave her the F18 national championship. Tony Pinkham had an outstanding Brown performance at that meet. His blazing Day Two run in the open category was an overall second only to Ed Gookin's M65 winning time.

     1 Wildfogel, Dennis     3    97.8          Pinkham, Tony          2   99.7
     2 Steuben, Anneliese    5    92.6          Minarik, Sarah         2   89.3
     3 Weber, Nik            4    88.4          Larsen, Shawn          2   68.9
     4 Custer, Evan          3    81.4          Freund, Dwight         2   60.4
     5 DeMoss, Harold        4    75.9          Boyer, Rick            2   54.4
     6 Kraght, Gary          3    74.3          Butterfield, Liz       2   49.9
     7 Spalding, Chuck       2    72.3          Young, Michael         2   44.5
     8 Lee, Jascha           3    63.6
     9 Coady, Sean           3    61.2
    10 Rice, Mark            4    59.1
    11 Lee, Vivian           8    58.0
    12 Minarik, Leslie       4    57.6
    13 Petersen, Janet       3    56.2
    14 Lanam, Jeff           4    54.4
    15 Meredith, David       3    52.7
    16 Widerstrom, Bjorn     3    51.8
    17 Johnson, Rosem.       5    46.8
    18 Gerstner, Meg         3    41.5
    19 Roos, Joan            3    40.9
    20 Shirley, Christine    3    35.5
    21 Lindeman, Nancy       8    34.0


Green

On the comeback trail, Penny put in six fine runs on Green, four of them over 100 points. What was probably her most impressive victory came at the end of the season at Calero, a clear win over all of her top contenders. But her ranking margin was slim.

George Minarik missed repeating as ranking champ by mere .3 points. But he was Mr. Consistency, rarely dipping under 90 points in nine runs. His best point getter was at Big Basin where all of his competition had big problems. Dennis Wildfogel showed consistency as well with his fourth year in a row as the number three Green runner in the club. My decline continued, putting me down two spots to fourth place. Injuries played their part but not as much as did some just plain poor navigation. I'm ready for a new millennium.

     1 DeMoss, Penny         6   104.5          Maclaean, Derek        2  111.2
     2 Minarik, George       9   104.2          Carpenter, Gary        3  102.0
     3 Wildfogel, Dennis     5    98.5          Haag, Werner           3   95.0
     4 Scarborough, Joe      9    95.1          Tresan, Blake          2   93.2
     5 Ramsey, Ian           8    88.9          Haarma, Hannu          2   90.5
     6 Williams, Rob         4    83.2          Glendinning, Alan      3   86.5
     7 Papendick, Bill       5    80.1          Weber, Nik             2   83.6
     8 Green, Russell        5    72.7          Spalding, Chuck        3   75.3
     9 Taylor, Chris         4    70.9          Minarik, Sarah         3   74.3
    10 Poulsen, Michael      4    68.1          Gross, Ron             2   71.6
    11 Goss, Jerry           6    65.5          Wagner, Greg           2   68.4
    12 Fleishman, Mike       6    64.1          Larsen, Shawn          3   66.7
    13 Minarik, Leslie       4    61.0          Corsano, Nick          3   65.3
    14 Straka, Bill          4    60.4          Maclean, Stephanie     3   64.8
    15 Goss, Stacy           7    60.3          Evans, Sharon          3   63.8
    16 Abernathy, Aileen     8    59.1          Lee, Greg              2   62.0
    17 Lanam, Jeff           5    58.9          Gleason, Terry         2   59.9
    18 Verhoeven, Theo       4    58.5          Freund, Dwight         2   58.1
    19 Barr, David           4    57.1          Hendrix, Chad          2   57.7
    20 DeMoss, Harold        4    54.7          Lewis, Robert          3   53.2
    21 White, Patty          4    52.9          Jacobi, Edith          2   49.5
    22 Hoare, Philip         5    49.8          Sessler, Karen         2   47.6
    23 Madrid, Louise        4    49.5          Jacobi, Chris          3   47.1
    24 Beuerman, Steve       7    46.4          Ravenko, Vic           3   43.5
    25 Johnson, Rosemary     4    36.9          Young, Michael         3   43.4
                                                Roos, Joan             3   39.9


Red

In the continuing saga of the Scandinavians, Kent returned to the top of the Red rankings. That makes it three out of the last four years that he has fended off second-place Tapio Karras, last year's leader. Kent finished ahead of Tapio in all but one of their six meetings. His outstanding performance must have been two days at Spooner where Kent won the M40 national title.

Steve Gregg can take equal pride in his runs that left him only one second back over the two days. Steve, Bruce Wolfe, and Neal Barlow who spend most of their orienteering on the Blue course and Dan Greene add to what must be the most formidable M 35-49 dirty half-dozen in the country.

Angelica Riley, the beauty among the beasts, came through in grand style at the Championships to become the 1999 Women's national champion and the club's top ranked woman (despite that DVOA after her name in he results.)

     1 Ohlund, Kent          5   101.0          Wolf, Bruce            3  116.9
     2 Karras, Tapio         8    98.2          Barlow, Neal           3  104.7
     3 Riley, Angelica       4    92.9          Gregg, Steve           2  10.24
     4 Greene, Dan           7    90.7          Meier, Fabian          2   92.2
     5 Carpenter, Gary       4    86.3          Tidswell, Ian          2   88.9
     6 Pering, Trevor        4    78.4          Wyatt-Mair, Gavin      2   85.0
     7 Haag, Werner          5    78.0          Petersen, Mark         3   82.6
     8 Sherwood, Chris       5    77.3          Vomanske, Ken          2   77.4
     9 Cooley, Bob           4    76.9          Jankowski, Steve       2   74.4
    10 Kohler, Matthias      7    76.6          Pinkham, Tony          3   71.1
    11 Wallenborg, Suzanne   4    74.7          Poulsen, Michael       2   60.0
    12 Willecke, Ralf        5    74.5          Thompson, Jim          2   51.1
    13 Wells, Kelly          6    74.2          Schoenfeld, Kevin      3   50.5
    14 Bassett, Bruce        4    73.2          Green, Russell         2   47.3
    15 Blair, Mark           9    67.2
    16 Graube, Peter         4    65.0
    17 Aster, Scott          4    64.6
    18 Rosenzweig, Eric      4    59.2
    19 Rice, Mark            5    51.8
    20 Lewis, Robert         4    43.4


Blue

James came back from his slow year in 1998, concentrating on education, to take back the lead in the M21 rankings. He won five of his eight outings against BAOC competition. His one uncharacteristic low was at Annadel. Second-place Dan Stoll showed tremendous improvement this year, moving from 33rd on the 1998 USOF list to 7th this year, BAOC's top ranked man. He lost four of his six races with Panu Haaramo* and the same with Wyatt, but averaged out better than both. Running in 9 of 10 races did not hurt. Panu won three of his six races, the most important being close finishes over James both days at Spooner. Dan's low day was his DNF at Big Basin but won two of his other three duels with Wyatt.

Syd Reader moved to fifth from seventh, and Kent Ohlund continues to rank near the top in Blue as well as Red. Neeme Loorits would have appeared on the list tied for third with 90.8 points but for the fact he does not appear in the roster.

     1 Scarborough, James    7   100.9          Barlow, Neal           3   84.2
     2 Dan Stoll             9    91.5          Carpenter, Gary        2   78.8
     3 Haaramo, Panu         7    90.8 *        Maclean, Derek         3   75.9
     4 Riley, Wyatt          4    89.9          Meier, Fabian          2   63.5
     5 Reader, Syd           9    87.0          MacMullen, Hugh        3   59.8
     6 Ohlund, Kent          4    84.4          Rosenzweig,Eric        2   43.9
     7 Stein, Doug           10   84.3
     8 Wallenborg, Magnus    6    83.9
     9 Graeve, Thorsten      8    80.0
    10 Gregg, Steve          5    76.0
    11 Prior, Mark           4    66.4
    12 Boughner, Van         8    61.7
    13 Wyatt-Mair, Gavin     4    61.1
    14 Winterbottom, Rex     4    57.9
    15 Dreyfus, David        6    51.6
* Panu's score was originally reported as 94.9. This was in error due to an incorrect formula in the computations. The correction was made on 1/28/00.


Rankings Philosophy

It is easy to get hung up in methodology and forget the underlying philosophy that is far more important, I think, in how the rankings turn out. The all-important order of ranking will vary a lot with which events are included, who attends, how they are grouped, and how well they do in relative terms. The mathematical calculations are much less influential.

An important decision in the process is how the competitors are grouped. My feeling is that, exactly as in competition, rankings comparison is most meaningful within a range of age, gender and ability levels. IOF age groupings are obviously better at this than open color-coded structure. The BAOC rankings take both approaches into consideration. For instance, while runners dropping down may provide an interesting comparison, the ranking system should also emphasize competition within a reasonably competitive mix.

Another important variable is which events are considered in the rankings. The list of BAOC areas has been fairly consistent over the last few years, stemming from he original Technical Committee list of 1996. They are those of A and B quality level in terms of terrain and map. Events at those areas where A or B meet rules and standards are intended are used as ranking events. Variations depend on meet directors' objectives and the addition of newly mapped areas. The primary criteria are fairness, challenge and standards.

The intent is to use those events likely to produce fairest competitive results. Even among the best, it is clear that not all B meets are equal. Persistent map problems with some of our areas, the variations in course quality and other inconsistencies all have an unavoidable effect on the rankings. It is difficult to quantify these variables in the ranking procedure because they are usually subjective and also, to some extent, because of some lack of interest within the sport to an analytical approach.

Awareness of variation in event quality, however, is useful when comparing individual performances and weighing the reliability of the lists. When looking at relative rankings, for instance, a comparison of how those individuals performed in specific races will help assess the value of the list. Good rankings can be thought of as a reflection of the combined competition from the best events.


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