Browns Valley Open Space Preserve
Date: (Sun.) Mar. 9, 2025
Location: Vacaville, CA
Event Director: 
- 415.456.8118
Course Setter: Andrew Masalkov
Type: C; This event will offer courses for first-timers & experienced orienteers; non-members and beginners are welcome; brief, free beginner instruction will be available
Related Event Information
WinSplits Results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=103223) Attackpoint Results (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_58961) RouteGadget – Introduction RouteGadget – This Event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=557) Event Announcement
Event Write-Up
By , Event Director
Beautiful weather greeted participants at Browns Valley on Sunday. Bright sunshine, temps in the 60's, and soft, green grass, mown short by grazing cattle. The cattle have chewed up the ground with their hooves quite a bit, making for rough going over much of the terrain, but it was mostly dry, if not a bit bumpy! Participants who found the many smoother cow trails while contouring along the ridges made better time than others running on trails.
Andrew Masalkov designed a White course with very little climb (thanks to the walk to the remote Start), and decided to challenge advanced orienteers with a 1- and 2-hour Score-O format. For those who don't know, Score-O is an event where controls are set out all over the map, and you try to get as many of them as possible within the time limit. To tempt people to venture further, Andrew varied the points gained for each control, with the more difficult ones worth up to 30 points, while the easiest had a value of 10 points. This provides a very personal challenge, as each person's goal is to get to as many controls as possible, without coming in way early, or coming in after the time limit (penalties were assessed for this!). No one DNFs on a Score-O course!
I was amazed that three people on the 2-hour course got all the controls, and several came very close to doing so! I believe getting all the controls meant travelling at least 12–15 km, and a climb of 600–700 meters!
The event center was set at a covered eating area of the local elementary school, which made for such luxuries as lots of tables, shade from the sun, and access to the schools restrooms!
Sarah Williams ably handled registration all by herself, and Jeff Lanam made sure the E-punch system ran like clockwork. Vicki Woolworth, along with Andrew, ran the starts for most of the morning, and five intrepid orienteers, Taylor Pospisil, Tac Sugiyama, Neville Fernandes, Lubomir Šebo, and Nick Corsano, went back out and collected the controls at the end of the day.
My biggest thank you, is to Andrew. He not only designed the courses, and set them up Saturday and Sunday morning, but he also set up the Start, got the maps printed, set out water, and helped with the take-down tasks at the end of the day.
Thanks to all the helpers, and everyone who came out for a fun event!
Results
Browns Valley Open Space Preserve
Vacaville, CA
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Course: White 1-hour Score-O 2-hour Score-O
Also see control-by-control timing in the WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=103223) and on Attackpoint (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_58961). Note, however, that neither display really works with Score-O splits, but you might find something interesting. The splits for the White course are normal, since it was a point-to-point course.
You can see the event map with the actual routes traveled by participants, and draw your own route for comparison, in RouteGadget for this event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=557). (Use of RouteGadget is explained here.)
- In RouteGadget, you can enter your route manually or upload a GPS recording and adjust to fit our map. The following tips apply to the GPS method.
- RouteGadget Tip #1: After selecting your GPX file, make sure to adjust the time offset between starting your watch at the Start line and leaving the Start Triangle. The offset can have a significant impact on your route accuracy. For most local events, the offset should be set to 0 as we start from the triangle (assuming you started your watch exactly when you started).
- RouteGadget Tip #2: After uploading your GPS track to RouteGadget, you can create additional blue adjustment points by right-clicking your track. You can use these points to better align your route with the map, for example, along trails. You can delete extra adjustment points by right-clicking them.
Please tell Jeff Lanam () and the webmasters () if anything needs to be changed.
Preliminary Results
The Score-O standings below are based on Points Score, which is Collected Points (points for controls visited) plus (negative) Reduction. The Reductions are penalty points for being overtime (5 points per minute or fraction of a minute). Ties on Points Score are ordered by finish Time.
White Course (2.1 km, 40 m climb, 10 controls)
Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind lost
1 Janaki Rao 1:08:53 10:50
2 52OSCAR 1:23:50 14:57 18:44
3 The Antarctic Polar Bears 1:26:18 17:25 24:55
4 Yellow Jackets 2:12:39 63:46 59:44
1-hour Score-O (35 controls; 10, 20, or 30 points each)
Points Collected
Pl Name Club Score Time Points Reduction
1 Wayne Staats BAOC 250 57:59 250
2 François Léonard BAOC 190 52:53 190
3 Matt Marlow BAOC 125 1:00:18 130 -5
4 Penny DeMoss BAOC 120 56:29 120
5 Sheila Cotter BAOC 110 57:59 110
6 Nick Corsano BAOC 90 59:54 90
7 Anna Staats BAOC 80 58:39 80
8 Vladimir Gusiatnikov OCIN 70 54:44 70
9 Beatrice Schreibstein OCIN 70 54:45 70
10 Gordon Bloom BAOC 70 59:09 70
11 The Belugas BAOC 50 58:23 50
12 Sarah Williams BAOC 40 1:01:25 50 -10
2-hour Score-O (35 controls; 10, 20, or 30 points each)
Points Collected
Pl Name Club Score Time Points Reduction
1 Rex Winterbottom BAOC 400 1:53:38 400
2 Tac Sugiyama BAOC 400 1:58:12 400
3 Annina Müller OLG Thun 390 1:43:14 390
4 Lubomir Šebo BAOC 390 1:59:14 390
5 Taylor Pospisil BAOC 385 2:02:52 400 -15
6 Greg Khanlarov BAOC 380 1:52:39 380
7 Tom De Vre BAOC 380 1:58:06 380
8 Graham Brew BAOC 340 1:45:31 340
9 Weichun Fong BAOC 320 1:51:55 320
10 Josef Estrada-Ledesma CHSOC 310 1:52:09 310
11 Sam Barker 310 1:52:16 310
12 Marie-Josée Parayre BAOC 290 1:53:36 290
13 Theo Verhoeven BAOC 290 1:57:58 290
14 Christian Noack 270 1:56:52 270
15 Kristin Bremm NAVX 250 1:59:36 250
16 Kris Andersen GCO 240 1:51:32 240
17 Johan Grobler NAVX 240 2:01:07 250 -10
18 Anna Shane CHSOC 230 1:50:59 230
19 Vivi Mellow CHSOC 230 1:51:02 230
20 Vicki Woolworth NAVX 230 1:55:18 230
21 Jerry Skirvin BAOC 200 1:52:28 200
22 Alex Wells CHSOC 180 1:56:58 180
23 Peter Woodbury CHSOC 180 1:57:34 180
24 Ronald Ward CHSOC 160 1:40:27 160
25 Mark Sasaki 160 1:59:32 160
26 Harrisha Ampo CHSOC 140 1:35:52 140
27 Gideon Feuling CHSOC 140 1:36:05 140
28 Neva Mellow CHSOC 140 1:37:28 140
29 Jasmine Slater CHSOC 130 1:38:27 130
30 Jazelyn Avila CHSOC 130 1:40:24 130
31 Piper Jensick CHSOC 130 1:51:42 130
32 Cash McIntyre CHSOC 120 1:42:05 120
33 Team Ryly 120 1:57:46 120
34 Johanna Merriss BAOC 100 1:07:11 100
35 Chloe Suitt-Payne CHSOC 100 1:41:55 100
36 Shengye Wang BAOC 100 1:59:48 100
37 Liam Reeder CHSOC 90 1:37:28 90
Akira Ramirez CHSOC 0 DNS
_______________
DNS = Did not start