Point Pinole Results & Sprint Champs

May 15, 1999

by Bruce Wolfe, meet director

Jorgen Martensson's quote - "If the orienteering seems too easy, you're not running fast enough" - may be trite, but Pt. Pinole certainly supports it. While Pt. Pinole's unique terrain is fairly open and flat, no one found the orienteering too easy at the Sprint Champs and White/Yellow/Orange courses held there on Saturday, May 15.

On the contrary, there were a lot of tired folks at the end of the three-loop, 4.2 km Sprint Champs course. All who completed the Sprint Champs course had already completed the 3.3 km seeding course, so flat or open, 7.5 km of short, mostly head-to-head courses gets everyone in touch with their "physical" side. Those on the regular courses also seemed to feel that they were running faster or harder than usual. Don't you wish you could keep that tempo up on all courses?

The Sprint Champs were set up to loosely follow the successful Motala ("one-person relay") course format Joe Scarborough used at last fall's "Bay Area Backroads" event. The results of the orangish-brown Seeding Course were used to place "sprinters" into groups of six who started the Sprint together, but completed the three loops in orders designed to put the top two seeds head-to-head on the final loop. In most cases, however, the main head-to-head running occurred on the first loop. Once a handful of the six groups were out on the course, folks were going every which way, giving those of us at the start/finish almost as much of a challenge as the runners.

The Seeding Course results list received constant scrutiny as the groups unfolded. Small mistakes moved you quickly down the list, and usually into a lower-seeded group. Wyatt Riley headed the list at 17:52 for 3.3 km, but Doug Stein and Neal Barlow showed their speed and were less than 15 seconds behind. Wyatt continued the tempo and became the BAOC Sprint Champ for 1999 with an impressive 25:38 for the 4.2 km Sprint. Doug and Neal couldn't quite hold on to Wyatt during the Sprint, but Panu Haaramo and James Scarborough nearly did, running head-to-head on the last loop to finish a close second and third to Wyatt. Syd Reader's time in winning the second group was fourth fastest overall, and Gary Carpenter won the fourth group by nearly 11 minutes. George Minarik won the third group and Eric Anderson the fifth, as the only one to do the Sprint faster than the Seeding Course.

Dwight Freund was quite pleased with his Orange course run - he felt it one of the most enjoyable Oranges he'd ever done. Funny how a good result frames your outlook! It might have soured a bit when Jim McMahon came in nearly an hour-and-a-half later with a time three minutes faster.

Barbara Robben may not have realized it, but she battled Ruth Keller and Nick Palaio for top times on both the White and Yellow courses, winning the White, with Ruth and Nick taking the Yellow as a second course over Barbara. Aimee Grimes had the top Yellow for those starting it fresh.

Lots of folks to thank, starting with Steve Gregg for updated field-checking and recommendations on course-setting, and Bob Cooley for squeezing in time to make updates to the map's OCAD file and print out a load of fresh maps. Evan Custer not only supplied a lot of his own equipment and organized and ran both finish areas, but even was able to record all split times on the Sprint Champs course.

Aimee Grimes, EvnJean, and Dwight Freund worked registration; Meg Gerstner, Jan Wolfe, Shirley Parlan, Kelly Wells and Ian Ramsey helped at the start/fininshes; Judy Koehler helped the beginners; Leslie Minarik and Dan Stoll-Hadayia helped nab controls; lots of Sprint Champers helped carry stuff back from the remote start; and the East Bay Parks crew provided invaluable assistance ranging from hauling equipment and water to the starts to even picking up a control (wow, how many rangers have done that!). Scarborough Orienteering supplied Gookinaid as prizes to the Sprint Champs.

I'm sure I've left other helpers out, but thanks to all for helping make this a fun event. The area is quite different from most others in BAOC-land, and may even be a candidate for a full-blown mountain-bike orienteering in the future.


Results for Sprint Champs

SEEDING COURSE

1) Wyatt Riley              17:52
2) Doug Stein               18:04
3) Neal Barlow              18:06
4) Dan Stoll-Hadayia        18:21
5) Panu Haaramo             18:38
6) James Scarborough        18:52
7) Magnus Wallenborg        19:05
8) Van Boughner             19:50
9) Syd Reader               20:22
10) Kent Ohlund             21:37
11) Tapio Karras            21:42
12) Ian Ramsey              22:18
13) Angelica Riley          22:24
14) Dan Greene              22:27
15) Joe Scarborough         23:01
16) Sanna Wallenborg        23:58
17) Alan Glendinning        24:13
18) George Minarik          24:51
    Dennis Wildfogel        24:51
20) Gary Carpenter          26:16
21) Sarah Minarik           26:30
22) Shawn Larsen            28:42
23) Eric Rosenzweig         30:20
24) Kelly Wells             30:29
25) Mark Rice               31:58
26) Mark Blair              32:28
27) Jeff Lanam              36:12
28) Robert Lewis            40:55
29) Steve Beuerman          41:08
30) Eric Anderson           46:19
    Leslie Minarik           MSP (#3)

THE SPRINT

Group 1

1) Wyatt Riley              25:38
2) Panu Haaramo             26:10
3) James Scarborough        26:25
4) Neal Barlow              27:57
5) Dan Stoll-Hadayia        28:24
   Doug Stein                MSP (A4)	

Group 2

1) Syd Reader               26:53  
2) Kent Ohlund              29:35
3) Tapio Karras             30:13
4 Ian Ramsey                30:57
5 Van Boughner              36:01
6 Angelica Riley            37:50

Group 3

1) George Minarik           32:35
2) Dan Greene               35:27
3) Sanna Wallenborg         36:00
4) Alan Glendinning         38:31
5) Joe Scarborough          43:44
6) Dennis Wildfogel         53:51

Group 4

1) Gary Carpenter           30:18
2) Sarah Minarik            41:17
3) Eric Rosenzweig          42:23
4) Shawn Larsen             42:24
5) Kelly Wells              47:56
6) Mark Rice                60:34

Group 5

1) Eric Anderson            39:10
2) Mark Blair               43:48
3) Leslie Minarik           49:40
4) Robert Lewis             58:28
5) Jeff Lanam               58:54
6) Steve Beuerman           63:04

Magnus Wallenborg            DNS


Results for Regular Courses

WHITE

1) Barbara Robben               21:06
2) Ruth Keller/Nick Palaio      23:09
3) Michael and Rachel Owens     41:49
4) Lou and Elisabeth Saylor     56:36
5) Joe, Jen and Kaala Rego      63:55
6) Shantika and Peter Emker     66:13

YELLOW

1) Ruth Keller/Nick Palaio      38:18 (second course)
2) Aimee Grimes                 42:48
3) Barbara Robben               46:18 (second course)
4) George and Pat Aster         66:13
5) Jack Myers                   76:04
6) Shirley Parlan               76:21 (second course)
7) Chris Lowry                  77:17
8) Kris M.                     115:47

ORANGE

1) Jim McMahon                  44:36
2) Dwight Freund                47:55
3) Marsha Jacobs                58:06
4) Madonna Bentz                65:20
5) Stew Hintz                   77:35
6) Cecile Jimenez               78:00
7) Dave Watt and Laura Downs    79:15
8) Rosemary Johnson             82:00
9) Shirley Parlan               86:30
10) Judy Koehler                92:52
11) Ev and Jean Beuerman        98:30
    Orlando San Martin           DNF