Point Pinole

February 27, 2000

by Steve Gregg, meet director

Yes, it was pouring rain in Oakland at 7 AM when I left my house for Point Pinole. This no doubt kept all of the beginners and even some of the advanced runners home in bed. But by 8:30 the skies were mostly clear at Point Pinole, and the brave souls who ignored the early morning showers enjoyed a beautiful day of orienteering. The terrain was soggy from all the rain (it reminded George Minarik of "running through the Swedish bogs"), but the footing was still fairly good in most places and the top runners in the club made sure that the Sprint Championships lived up to its billing as a test of speed through the terrain. Below are the complete results.

The event was held in two segments: first a short, 3.2 km Prologue with normal staggered starts, and then a longer 6 km Chase with start times determined by the results of the Prologue. While this introduced an element of luck into the Chase (some people had the advantage of running in a pack much of the way; others didn't), I don't think there's much doubt that the top three finishers in the event are the three fastest runners in the club. James Scarborough and Dan Stoll were almost two minutes ahead of everyone else after the Prologue, and increased this gap during the Chase to finish a full seven minutes ahead of the third-place runner. James began the Chase with an eighteen second head start on Dan, but Dan soon caught James, ran with him for awhile, then pulled away at the end of the Chase to win the event by twenty seconds. Congratulations, Dan! Dan is starting to train seriously for orienteering again and it's showing in his recent results.

Things were a little more interesting behind Dan and James. Neal Barlow, Kent Ohlund, Syd Reader, and Ian Ramsey were in positions three through six after the Prologue, with a gap of two minutes thirty seconds between Neal and Ian. Neal and Kent predicted they would lose ground during the Chase due to a lack of training and their predictions were proven correct, as the two young fit kids (Syd and Ian) proceeded to run down the two oldsters. Ian eventually put his excellent running speed to work and pulled away from Syd in the last hundred meters, taking third place by twelve seconds. From the standpoint of sheer running speed, Ian is probably at least as fast as Dan and James right now, and as soon as he gets more orienteering experience, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with in the orienteering community.

Although the event wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped due to the relatively low turnout of advanced runners, everyone seemed to enjoy the new format of the sprint champs and it will perhaps be repeated in future years. Thanks to everyone who helped make the event a success. Penny and Harold DeMoss, in particular, helped in almost every possible way the day of the event. I'm writing this in April and I've frankly forgotten everyone else who volunteered their time. My apologies and thanks very much!


Results

SPRINT CHAMPS
                          PROLOGUE      CHASE         TOTAL

 1.  Dan Stoll            18:31 (2)     34:39 (1)     53:10
 2.  James Scarborough    18:13 (1)     35:17 (2)     53:30
 3.  Ian Ramsey           22:44 (6)     37:49 (3)     60:33
 4.  Syd Reader           21:51 (5)     38:54 (4)     60:45
 5.  Neal Barlow          20:11 (3)     41:20 (6)     61:31
 6.  Derek MacLean        23:17 (8)     41:10 (5)     64:27
 7.  Doug Stein           23:08 (7)     41:27 (7)     64:35
 8.  Van Boughner         23:28 (9)     41:44 (8)     65:12
 9.  Kent Ohlund          21:43 (4)     44:19 (10)    66:02
10.  Mark Prior           25:53 (11)    42:54 (9)     68:47
11.  Gary Carpenter       25:14 (10)    48:44 (13)    73:58
12.  George Minarik       27:39 (14)    49:39 (15)    77:18
13.  Shawn Larsen         29:43 (19)    48:18 (12)    78:01
14.  Ian Tidswell         29:57 (20)    48:17 (11)    78:14
15.  Angelica Riley       26:26 (13)    52:16 (17)    78:42
16.  Evan Custer          29:31 (17)    49:34 (14)    79:05
17.  Kelly Wells          28:12 (15)    53:02 (19)    81:14
18.  Joe Scarborough      26:22 (12)    56:34 (21)    82:56
19.  Chris Taylor         31:50 (21)    56:26 (20)    88:16
20.  Mike Prindiville     38:55 (25)    51:13 (16)    90:08
21.  Bill Papendick       28:19 (16)    63:01 (22)    91:20
22.  Gavin Wyatt-Mair     39:02 (26)    52:53 (18)    91:55
23.  James Wilson         33:53 (22)    70:15 (24)    104:08
24.  Stew Hintz           34:56 (23)    69:27 (23)    104:23
25.  Robert Lewis         37:00 (24)    77:14 (25)    114:14
26.  Eric Rosenzweig      29:40 (18)    DNF
27.  Dennis Wildfogel     DNF           DNS

Unofficial times (pre-runners)

Harold DeMoss             34:40
Penny DeMoss                            51:27
Dan Greene                32:03
Steve Gregg               19:30         38:30
 (touching streamers on a dry day)
 

WHITE
    (1)  John Herron                40:28
    (2)  Keup / Bitner              94:55

YELLOW  
    (1)  Barbara Robben             58:53
    (2)  Shirley Parlan             62:22
    (3)  Fowler group (Pack 134)    95:00

ORANGE
    (1)  Minoru Machii              24:10
    (2)  Lars Fjellbirkeland        25:59
    (3)  Brian Donohue              31:53
    (4)  Stephanie Maclean          33:33
    (5)  Jeff Lanam                 36:57
    (6)  Phillip Hoare              42:00
    (7)  Joan Roos                  43:16
    (8)  John Herron                47:10
    (9)  Melissa Criqui             48:44
    (10)  Trinka Gillis             51:11
    (11)  Jeff Walker               51:17
    (12)  Leslie Minarik            58:00
    (13)  Jesse and Julia           63:09
    (14)  Jack Myers                63:50
    (15)  Dean French               68:30
    (16)  Shirley Parlan 
            (2nd course)            71:12
    (17)  ROTC Group #3            100:51
    (18)  ROTC Group #2            109:57
    (19)  ROTC Group #1            130:48