Saturday June 4th was a great day for orienteering. The weather gods smiled on the debut of the the all new Rabbit Creek Map. The competition was superb.

To no ones surprise Sergey Velichko set the gold standard for the new map on the advanced course finishing over 25 mins ahead of the next competitor. But the competition for 2nd place was intense. Jennie and Michael Tobin (World Champ Rogainer), Jeff Black ( top 10 finish at Robbie Creek) and Kristen Ritzenthaler (former Junior World and Womens USA Orienteering champion) all crossed the finish line within 2 minutes of each other.

Unfortunately the Tobin's and Bill Leahy were moving so fast they overlooked checking their control numbers and punched a beginner control on a tree in the creek rather than the correct control in a nearby gulley.

Ole Bergset and Bill L. ate up some time with parallel gulches on the most distant corner of the map. David Bergset made a great showing in spite of painfully blistered feet. Nic Stover and Jay Merritt teamed up and had a great run on the advanced course, finding all controls in good time. Russ Pilcher came all the way from Texas to try out his brother, Bill's new map. Russ, always a good guest, was determined not to show up the local folks and he succeeded in that!

Once again, Masha blitzed the beginner course for a win in spite of it being more of an orange course than a white or yellow.

Newcomer Charlie Solomon was a good sport and tried out both the advanced and Intermediate courses. Dondi Dawley and Sage were the only other takers on the intermediate course.

For those who stayed, Saturday evening there was a good opportunity to "carb load" as well as lots of fun at the spaghetti feed, prepared by Dee and Cheryl.

Day 1 Classic Course:
 
Advanced Course 8.5km
Sergey Velichko             1:07:54
 
Jeff Black                  1:36:06
Kristin Ritzenthaler        1:36:52 
   
David Bergset               2:07:35
Ole Bergset                 2:11:24
Nic Stover and Jay Merritt  2:19:02
Russ Pilcher                2:29:18
Karin Didisse               2:36:15
 
Mike and Jennie Tobin       1:34:36 (mispunched #14)
Bill Leahy                  2:20:16 (mispunched #14)
 
 
Intermediate Course  4.6Km
Charlie Solomon             2:07:33
Dondi Dawley and Sage       3:42
 
Beginner Course  3.2Km
Masha Velichko              1:04:20
Charlie Solomon             1:12:54
 
Dee Verti, Cherly Spencer and Tabbie Solomon DNF
Steve and Wren Collins      DNF 
Photo Links:
Photo Album 1
Photo Album 2


Sunday June 5th the sky and forcasts all indicated a possible rainstorm. But the weather turned out perfect, and stayed cool for the Rogaine, with not a drop of rain. The Rogaine was run on a 1:25,000 slightly modified USGS map, with 23 controls . As the course setter, I seriously doubted ayone without a helicopter could possibly get all the controls in 4 hours.

With severe penalties for being overtime I was concerned that Ole did not have a watch and I offered to loan him mine. He assured me he didn't need a watch because he was just going to go out and get a few controls and come back when he thought he had "enough". Turns out that Ole somehow managed to come back with only 8 minutes to spare and didn't have "enough" until he had punched 22 of 23 controls! Jeff Black using completely different strategy also punched 22 of 23 controls missing the same lower scoring control #9 as Ole. Unfortunately Jeff came running hard to finish the line but 3 minutes (-15 points) past the 4 hours deadline! Jeff still managed to hang on to 2nd place with Nic Stover and Brad Acker right on his tail.

Day 2 Rogaine  (205pts possible, 23 controls, 4 hour limit)
 
Ole Bergset       200pts       22/23    3:52
 
Jeff Black        185pts       22/23    4:03   (15pt penalty overtime)
 
Nic Stover
and Brad Acker    180pts       19/23    3:53
 
Bill Leahy        135pts       18/23    3:50
 
Russ Pilcher      115pts       13/23    3:45
 
Dondi Dawley       60pts       9/23     3:58
 
Thanks to Karin Didisse for helping get out some Rogaine controls and manning the start and finish. Special thanks to Dee Verti and Cheryl Spencer for preparing the taco feed Friday Night and the Spagehetti Feed Saturday night.

Thanks to Ole for picking up most of the Rogaine controls a few days later, what a guy!

An extra special thanks to Russ Pilcher, for getting me interested in maps, compasses and orienteering and for his help in setting up the course.

Bill Pilcher

Click on image to get full map. For your course analyses here is best route for the advanced course by Sergey. Always remember to minimize distance and climb!