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Results: February 12, 2012
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We had a great turnout for our Needle Vista event. Thanks to all of you who came out and spent some time with us. The only real satisfaction we get out of putting on our events is to see your smiling faces and to share in your excitement about doing the events. As you know, putting on an orienteering event is very time consuming. Creating the course itself can take several trips to the event site. The day of the event requires setup, registration, event execution, and tear-down. As a club sport, we don't organize events to make money. As far as our adventure races go, you won't find a better deal than the $5/$8 per person we charge for a 5-hour event. We're really happy when you all join us for some good navigation fun. Please feel free to tell all your friends about all the fun you have doing our orienteering and adventure race events.
As we arrived at the Needle Vista parking lot on Sunday, we were a little worried that attendance might not be very high. Our events in the last few months have had limited participation, partly due to conflicts with other sporting events, partly due to weather concerns. For our Needle Vista event, we were pleasantly surprised when starting at about 07:15, cars started pulling into the parking lot. We really can't stress enough how excited we are when all of you come out to do our events. In total, we had 38 participants; 29 for the Score-O and 9 who participated in the adventure race. We'd like to thank each and every one of you for participating in the Needle Vista event.
The weather for the event was really nice. We've had a very mild winter this year and today was no exception. The day was sunny with a high in the low 70's. For some, the 5-hour adventure race and 3-hour Score-O may have been a little long. However, if you're willing to drive the distance to come to our events, we'll provide you with enough navigation experience to make it worth your time.
The adventure race consisted of three disciplines. Participants started by plotting 6 UTM controls on a 1:10,000 map, then visiting the controls in any order. To be considered official finishers, participants had to visit all 6 controls. Next, the racers were asked to find 6 controls using nothing but a distance and bearing starting at a reference point. Finally, the adventure racers were sent off on the same Score-O course setup for the other orienteers.
The UTM plotting didn't seem to present any special difficulties. Wendy and David Marks completed the UTM portion of the race in just over 1 hour. Team "I have No Idea" were close behind.
The distance/bearing course proved to be a little trickier. Without the benefit of a map, small errors in either the distance or bearing can cause a participant to be 20 or more meters off per 100 meters of distance. The distance/bearing navigation helps racers practice searching for a control when they think they have already arrived at the correct location. Participants must slow down and search in concentric circles around a point they think is correct. All participants were able to find the 6 distance/bearing points.
The third portion of the race sent racers onto the Score-O course with 28 controls. To clear all controls would have taken over 15 km and over 600 meters positive elevation change. Dave and Windy did a great job by visiting 23 of the 28 controls. Tim, Tina, and Kristen were close behind with 20. Kevin Adams from Flagstaff was a little off his normal navigating game but still managed to find 14 controls.
The Score-O course proved to be difficult even with the 3-hour time limit. The straight line distance was only around 10 km, but with 600+ meters of positive elevation gain, the course was difficult for all but the most hardy orienteers to finish. Ludwig Hill once again showed his fitness and mastership of navigation by clearing the course in 2:33. Ludwig has really come on strong recently - we think he's been training more. Not far behind was Erik Ringnes. Erik didn't mention any particular navigation difficulties but was unable to get to two outlying controls in the given time. Max Suter took time off his European travels to join us in the nice Arizona weather and place third.
We had quite a few visitors come up from Tucson for the event. Besides Max and Ludwig, Jeff Brucker did the course with his grandson Jonas. They had a strong finish and won the team category. Leif Lundquist and Mike Cagle also braved the two-hour drive for the event. GG Larington and Nancy Jenkins seemed to have a good time finding 10 controls. I unfortunately forgot to tell them that we didn't have a recreational category. They didn't know we were keeping their time and score so they weren't in any hurry to complete the course.
Kathi Douglas also went out on the course and was able to find one control with the help of her two dogs. With little navigation experience, we're just excited when Kathi is able to find her way back to the start line. Although the control she found was only about 200 meters from the start, we think she drifted off to look at flowers she saw along the way.
We had some reports of map inaccuracies. In general, the contours on the map are correct, but the angle on some of the fences isn't completely accurate. There are also some newer trails that aren't included on the map. At some point, the club should redo the Needle Vista map. At this point, we are a small club with few volunteers to organize the events, so map upgrades will have to wait until later.
Thanks once again to everyone who participated in the Needle Vista event. As I said before, the only satisfaction we get out of our events comes from people taking the time to enjoy the courses we've setup. We hope you'll all spread the word to all your friends about our events.
| Course Setters: | Ron Birks |
| Meet Directors: | Ron Birks |
| Bag Hangers: | Ron Birks |
| Water Station Setup: | No course water stations. |
| Equipment Hauling: | Ron Birks, Kathi Douglas |
| Setup/Tear-down: | Ron Birks, Kathi Douglas, Gary Parkinson, Cooper Parkinson, Max Suter |
| Registration Table: | Ron Birks, Kathi Douglas |
| Timing Table: | Ron Birks |
| Beginners Clinic: | Ron Birks |
| Control Retrieval: | Ludwig Hill, Leif Lundquist, Gary Hickey, Ryan Brokaw, Erik Ringnes, Deb Allen, Jack London, Ron Birks |
| Tabulating Results: | Ron Birks |
| UTM: | 6 controls, 3.8 km, 183 meters climb |
| Distance/Bearing: | 6 controls, 0.95 km, 25 meters climb |
| Score-O: | 28 controls, 10.1 km, 602 meters climb |
| Total Participants: | 9 |
| Entry Name | UTM Elapsed Time |
UTM Points |
Distance/ Bearing Elapsed Time |
Distance/ Bearing Points |
Score-O Elapsed Time |
Score-O Points |
Total AR-5 Time |
Total Points |
Team Members |
| Out of Control | 01:09:00 | 6 | 00:25:00 | 6 | 03:05:21 | 23 | 04:39:21 | 35 | David Marks, Wendy Marks |
| I Have No Idea | 01:13:00 | 6 | 00:41:00 | 6 | 02:48:27 | 20 | 04:42:27 | 32 | Tina Stefek, Kristen Peers, Tim Stefek |
| Kevin Adams | 01:15:00 | 6 | 00:41:00 | 6 | 02:24:52 | 14 | 04:20:52 | 26 | |
| How's My Driving | 01:34:00 | 6 | 00:35:00 | 6 | 01:21:40 | 11 | 03:30:40 | 23 | Cooper Parkinson, Gary Parkinson |
| Mike Zampino | 01:14:00 | 6 | 00:37:00 | 6 | 01:26:21 | 5 | 03:17:21 | 17 |
| Total Points Possible: | 770 |
| Number of Controls: | 28 |
| Straight-Line Distance/Climb: | 10.1 km, 602 meters climb |
| Total Participants: | 29 + 9 from AR-5 |
| Overall Place | Name | Total Points | Penalty | Final Points | Number of Controls | Time | Category | Rank | Team Members |
| 1 | Ludwig Hill | 770 | 0 | 770 | 28 | 02:33:39 | M | 1 | |
| 2 | Erik Ringnes | 690 | 0 | 690 | 26 | 02:50:45 | M | 2 | |
| 3 | Max Suter | 660 | 0 | 660 | 23 | 02:56:15 | M | 3 | |
| 4 | Forest Brown | 530 | 0 | 530 | 20 | 02:47:35 | M | 4 | |
| 5 | Tim England | 530 | 10 | 520 | 20 | 03:00:34 | M | 5 | |
| AR-5 | Out of Control | 560 | 60 | 500 | 23 | 03:05:21 | T | AR-5 | David Marks, Wendy Marks |
| 6 | Leif Lundquist | 490 | 0 | 490 | 16 | 02:55:32 | M | 6 | |
| 7 | Gary Hickey | 460 | 0 | 460 | 19 | 02:47:20 | M | 7 | |
| 8 | Glenn Haselfeld | 460 | 0 | 460 | 16 | 02:49:10 | M | 8 | |
| AR-5 | I Have No Idea | 450 | 0 | 450 | 20 | 02:48:27 | T | AR-5 | Tina Stefek, Tim Stefek, Kristen Peers |
| 9 | Scorpions | 430 | 0 | 430 | 18 | 02:56:38 | T | 1 | Jonas Burnett, Jeff Brucker |
| 10 | Ryan Brokaw | 360 | 0 | 360 | 15 | 02:56:00 | M | 9 | |
| 11 | Jack London | 330 | 0 | 330 | 16 | 02:32:43 | M | 10 | |
| 12 | Walt Smith | 330 | 0 | 330 | 11 | 02:33:03 | M | 11 | |
| 13 | TYM | 290 | 0 | 290 | 14 | 02:36:48 | T | 2 | Tatiana Fedyk, Yuri Fedyk, Masha Fedyk |
| 14 | Brooke Santos | 270 | 0 | 270 | 10 | 02:56:14 | F | 1 | |
| AR-5 | Kevin Adams | 270 | 0 | 270 | 14 | 02:24:52 | M | AR-5 | |
| AR-5 | How's My Driving | 260 | 0 | 260 | 11 | 01:21:40 | T | AR-5 | Cooper Parkinson, Gary Parkinson |
| 15 | Thunderbirds | 230 | 0 | 230 | 10 | 02:50:30 | T | 3 | Amy Zelezen, Matt Werner |
| 16 | Deb Allen | 200 | 0 | 200 | 7 | 02:26:05 | F | 2 | |
| AR-5 | Mike Zampino | 140 | 0 | 140 | 5 | 01:26:21 | M | AR-5 | |
| 17 | Team Goofballs | 130 | 0 | 130 | 10 | 02:49:20 | T | 4 | Mike Dale, Matt Dale, Moose Dale |
| 18 | Mike Cagle | 230 | 100 | 130 | 8 | 03:09:23 | M | 12 | |
| 19 | Team Bowman | 40 | 0 | 40 | 4 | 02:01:00 | T | 5 | Susie Bowman, Gary Bowman |
| 20 | Kathi Douglas | 10 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 00:46:00 | F | 3 | |
| 21 | Purple Pom-Poms | 130 | 150 | -20 | 10 | 03:15:35 | T | 6 | GG Larrington, Nancy Jenkins |
Note: We categorized results for adventure racers in the table above. Unfortunately, we didn't tell the racers we were going to include their score/time for the Score-O too. The goal during the adventure race was to find the most controls in the 5-hour time limit. There was no weighting for their Score-O controls. Each control was worth one point, so adventure racers were simply trying to visit as many controls as they could. We include their scores here just for an interesting comparison.