December 16, 2014

Riverstone Classic Results



Michael Bading having a blast on a beautiful Riverstone Classic course!

Despite being bookended by rain, wind and cold, the December 13 Riverstone Classic treated participants to wonderfully cool weather with blue skies and puffy white clouds, and in stark contrast to last year's icy and slippery conditions, the course was soft and grippy!  More than 30 turned out to compete on the White and Yellow (Beginner), Orange (Intermediate) and Green (Advanced) courses, with many trying their luck on multiple courses.

Before the full report, special recognition to all of our first-timers!  The Shaughnessy family (Michael and Ella) and Molly Maybach, the Simon crew (Randy, Finn and Cooper), Holly Ponath, Raino and Taavi Zoller, Nick Liebich, Walker Coyle, Aggie McGinnis, Beatrice Tornaghi and Ethan Treadwell all came out for their first CTOC Orienteering event and were enthusiastic about coming back for more!

Now, some results...

This month featured a twist on CTOC's traditional beginner, intermediate and advanced classifications. US Orienteering Federation course guidelines were used to differentiate between two beginner level courses; a White course almost exclusively utilized existing pathways and was just over 2km while a slightly longer and more challenging Yellow course took participants off-trail using obvious handrails.  The team of Taavi, Nick and Walker barely held off Taavi's mom, Holly Ponath by 15 seconds to win the White course, but I suspect next time they'll have their work cut out for them if they want to retain that top spot.  On the Yellow course, the brother/sister team of Derek and Jordan won by a healthy 15 minute margin.  The variety of beginner courses gave newcomers the chance to try out multiple courses and they got more time with map-in-hand without having to tackle one of the longer, more technically challenging courses.

White
     Tavie/Walker/Nick 
   15:30
     Holly Ponath
   15:45
     Jordan/Derek Liebich
   16:02
     Bea/Aggie
   16:30

Yellow
     Jordan/Derek Liebich
    33:15
     Holly Ponath
    49:21
     Cooper/Finn/Randy Simon  
    51:20
     Ella/Michael Shaughnessy & Molly Maybach
    51:20


Next up in the Orange (intermediate) class, which was made up of predominantly youth orienteerers (9!), the more challenging navigation and control placement played out in the results.  While Bea and Aggie finished with the fastest time they fell victim to some intentional parallel control placement and mis-punched #11, opening the door for Ethan who, despite his slower time, correctly punched all controls in 67 minutes.  Other participants in the Orange class were closely grouped between 90-100 minutes, and more than a few had difficulty with controls #8 and #9 which were placed in the newly mapped wetland area just across the river from Barber Park.  Kudos to Mark Liebich who even went back out in search of #8 with the dog.  Your course setters acknowledge that placing controls so close to the edge of mapped terrain without a clear catching feature might be avoidable in the future...

Orange
     Bea Tornaghi/Aggie McGinnis/Francesca Tornaghi
  0:51:37 *mispunch
     Ethan Treadwell - 1st Place
  1:07:56
     Jeff Black
  1:26:10
     Taavi/Nick/Walker
  1:31:30
     Mark Liebich  
  1:37:25
     Robyn/Frederike
  1:38:18
     Jay/Nikolai/Aleksi Morgan
  1:40:00



Finally, the Green class.  Why Green?  The USOF divides "advanced" orienteering courses into 4 classes which should involve equally challenging navigation and terrain, but which vary in length, with winning times as follows: Brown 45-50minutes, Green 50-55minutes, Red 60-65 minutes and Blue 75-80 minutes.  Sergey won this month's two-loop Green course in a time of 65 minutes, (exclaiming how out of shape he was...) and agreed that "fast" orienteerers would have completed the course in about 50 minutes.  Right on the heels of Sergey, Todd finished in 69 minutes, but although his Runkeeper GPS route indicated an appropriate route, one control was oddly mispunched, sliding Michael into 2nd place with a time of 80 minutes.

Green
         Sergey Velichko
   1:05:53
         Todd Dinkelman
   1:08:58  *mispunch
         Michael Bading
   1:20:32
         Bill Leahy
   1:22:40  (1st loop only)
         Greg Davidson
   1:23:04
         John Murray
   1:38:39
         Melanie Schuster
   1:39:55
         Melanie Wright
   2:26:30


Finally, thanks to:

  • Riverstone Orienteering Club members Levi Schmitt, Brian Bohme, Natalie Pusch and Becca Tabb who showed up bright and early on Saturday to place the 40+ controls needed to make the 4 courses possible and then helped to run the start/finish!
  • Robyn and Rike for helping with registration and control collection!
  • Jeff Black who ventured out onto the Orange course with his camera to capture the courses in action!

See you next month in Hidden Springs!

Ella and Molly at White #9.
Taavi, Walker and Nick tackle the Orange course.
Orange #7 / Green #5 in the newly mapped wetlands.
Mark Liebich...victorious at Orange #9!
Levi and Brian ready to set.  MTBO anyone?
Natalie and Becca out before the sun.
Robyn, Rike, Becca, Natalie, and Levi!





December 11, 2014

Next Up: Back to Basics with Classic Courses at Riverstone!

On the heels of November's long distance Street Challenge, the December CTOC event will get back to basics with Classic Courses in SE Boise.

The 1:5000 map will feature a Beginner Course (~2.5km), Intermediate Course (~6km), and Advanced Course (Motala Course with 2 loops totaling ~10km).

After being unveiled last year the Riverstone/EastJH/Mill District map has expanded in the direction of Barber Park, thanks to the mapping efforts of Riverstone Orienteering Club students.

Date:  Saturday, December 13
Time:  Registration opens 10:30am (each participant is required to fill out a form).  Courses open for starts between 11:00 and 12:30.  Courses close at 2:00.
Start/Finish Location: Riverstone International School Gymnasium.  Riverstone is located at 5521 Warm Springs Ave.  The Gymnasium is best accessed via Lysted Rd, West of the campus.  Look for the CTOC Orienteering signs!
Classes:  Beginner (~2.5km), Intermediate (~6km), Advanced (~10km)
Cost:  $5 per map, free to CTOC members.

What to bring:  Athletic clothing/shoes appropriate for the weather for a few hours outside, water as needed while on the course, cell phone for emergencies, compass to keep your map oriented (we have some for rental at nominal $1 fee).

Misc
Riverstone students will be on hand to provide instruction to first-timers and will even do walk-throughs on the beginning course with younger orienteerers to make sure they have a great time!  

Bonus for last month's Street Challenge participants....some of the Street Challenge controls that no one was able to visit just might pop up again!  This will be a great way to add to your score from last month!



December 6, 2014

2014 Boise Street Challenge Report

This year Boise Street Challenge turned to be the most challenging not only because of the weather pushed it one week later or because the weather again sweetened the day with 10 minutes of pouring rain followed by 5 minutes of hail right before the finish expiration time. It was, indeed, very challenging this year to collect most points from 40 controls spread across vast territories of East Boise with all the canals, cliffs, bridges, and the river added to the mix. With 1000 points maximum, the best score for bike division was 690 (Michael Bading) and for foot division 680 points (Ben Brock).

Both Michael Bading and Doug LaMott on bikes logged close to 26 miles while best runners did closer to 26 kilometers.

All started with a group photo and smiles

Strategic planning took some thinking.




But, of course, even before the planning begins, for such endurance fun, first thing is proper fueling for the race. A traditional offer of braunschweiger was for some reason rejected, however, turned to be a favorite AFTER the race. On the other hand. Reese's and KitKats were favorites BEFORE the race. Just an advice from the seasoned pro is to reverse this order for best results!


Some action during the race:
Nikolai, Aleksi, adn Emily at red slides of control 3.

John at control 5 counting mail boxes.

Andrea and Todd closing onto control 8 with "starry lights"

Mike is always prepared for bike-O! (courtesy of Jeff Black)

Chain art of control 33 at Bown's X-ing (courtesy of Jeff Black)
Doug finished in style

Mike is spurting to the finish
Ben the winner
John is flying
Winners of bike division
Winners of kids division



All finished with a group photo and smiles again

Results

  Division Time Points Overtime Total
Michael Bading bike 2:44:08 730 -40 690
Doug LaMott bike 2:35:45 610 -20 590
           
Nikolai, Aleksi, kids 2:38:48 120   120
Emily Morgan          
           
Beatrice Tornaghi juniors 3:05:55 490   490
Owen Zhang juniors        
           
Ben Brock   2:58:51 680   680
Jay Morgan    3:02:55 660   660
Jeff Black   3:07:01 600 -10 590
John Murray   3:02:23 330   330
Andrea Brooks          
Todd Dinhelman   1:08:00 100   100

Jeff was the only one who collected all 40 pointers (400 from his 600 points)! His route and more photos are available here!

I hope to see you all out in the nature during our next meet at the Riverstone School December 13!

Next year schedule of events will be published soon. It includes traditional favorites and new twists plus a national meet right here on our turf!

Yours,
Sergey Velichko

P.S. Some people missed the meet due to flat tires (Melanie I saw you) or some prior commitments. If you would like to try the Challenge - I saved couple maps with question sheets. Contact me.
P.P.S. If this is your compass - I have it! Let me know.