Stewart Gulch Results

Jerry above the city

 

This was our first opportunity at directing a meet and we didn’t quite know what to expect. After frenzied preparations we worried that no one would show up due to the dreadful weather forecast. At first light we set off in opposite directions to set the course. We anxiously awaited the storm that luckily never came. But the orienteers did come, more than expected prompting an emergency copy run to Kinko’s thanks to Jeff Black.

 

Mikayla heading down to the old Dodge

The Beginner Course was the only option to stay out of the steep hills. Vimean Rath had a hard time choosing which course to attempt but decided to go for the beginner. She came in with first place by a mere 30 seconds and will definitely try the intermediate course next time. Adam Wirth took off with his son Mac and they blasted through the course finishing second. That wasn’t enough for Adam who then headed off on the advanced course. The trio of Rikke Holtkotte, Maja Lillevoll and Robyn Olnes had a good time out on the course and will hopefully be back for more.

 

The Intermediate Course was the choice of the day with eighteen attempting the challenging course. Of those, only five found all of the controls within the two hour time limit. However it was a bit more challenging than planned due to a control being misplaced. Club veteran Bill Leahy was first in with Zach Clayton from the Riverstone School team close behind in second place and Jeff Black rounding out third place. We had out of town guests, Rob Landis (4^th), Griffin Curtis (7th), Will Snyder (10^th) and Peter Wolter (11^th) joining us from the Community School in Sun Valley. They are planning their own event in Ketchum in November. Maybe there will be some orienteering school rivalry developing? Qiming Zhang planned it just right coming in just before the time cutoff having found all of the controls and finishing in fifth place. Melanie Wright came in just a few minutes before the cutoff and decided to take a gamble and head back out to grab one more control. The gamble didn’t pay off but luckily it didn’t cost her either. Mikayla Rose didn’t know there was a deadline so she came in late losing her points but did a great job finding most all of the controls. 

  

 

Bill finding the checkpoint

    

The advanced course ended up being a tight competition with under a minute between club veteran Ben Brock in first place and world class adventure racer Michael Tobin in second place. Adam Wirth with his beginner course warm up came in third with Michael Bading following in fourth. John Murray timed it right finding all of the points and coming in fifth with thirteen minutes to spare. Jay Morgan came in sixth with 150 points, wonder how he would have done if he hadn’t of promised to be home early?

Jay heading uphill, over 3000' for the full Advanced course

We thank you all for bearing with us on our first meet and hope everyone had a good time. As you know or may have learned, a score-o competition really ups the ante, it’s not just how fast you are or how well you navigate, strategy also comes into the picture. Someone left a compass at the meet. Please contact us and we will get it back to you.