Calero

Morgan Hill
Nov. 17, 2002

by Abby Wolfe, meet director

On a beautiful fall day, some 300 people showed up at Calero Reservoir for BAOC's final regular meet of 2002. That might be a record for this venue! We rented out all the e-sticks and compasses, but fortunately had plenty of maps for everyone. Course times were fast and there were very few DNFs (did not finish), so we hope that means good course-setting and a fun time had by all. Below are the complete results. Also be sure to check out the e-punch splits for the Orange and advanced courses.

WYO Courses

The WYO courses, set by Abby Wolfe, attracted two-thirds of the participants, including several youth groups. The White course was dominated by Cupertino Middle School (40 kids/adults!) and two Girl Scout troops: Troop 341 (west San Jose) and Troop 373 (Mountain View). Jim Danz, Eric Trautman, and Scott Ballatore of Cupertino MS zipped through the course in just 27:48, almost 5 minutes ahead of the next team. The first girls across the finish line were Bonnie Chan, Sarah Engle, and Chethana Damodara (also from Cupertino MS), who placed 5th. There actually were some adults on the White course, but they couldn't keep up with the kids....

The Yellow course had a few more grownups, plus Boy Scout Troop 290 and another Girl Scout troop. The winner was another junior, Jeremy Bricker, with a time of 33:02. Caroline Lee (an adult!), doing her second course of the day, finished 2nd in 39:30. And 10-year-old Sean Hiller, a first-time orienteer, finished an amazing 4th in 51:35 (shadowed by dad Bernhard) - the kid's a natural! Unfortunately, one group of girls on Yellow apparently didn't use their maps and got quite lost (they were seen on a trail south of Green #6, which was nowhere near the Yellow course), and didn't show up at the Finish until well after the 2:00 pm course close. This should be a reminder to adult chaperones that kids need to be adequately prepared, understand what they are doing (putting the map in your pocket and wandering around is not orienteering!), and know what to do if they get lost.

The Yellow course included a few routes that encouraged easy off-trail navigation - but alas, two of these were marred by map-printing errors. The route choice for leg 4-5 was either a long roundabout trail, or a short direct downhill hike through an open area. Unfortunately, the west end of the trail loop got cut off during map production (the printer forgot that trails were key for Yellow), creating a potential source of confusion for novice map readers (we heard one complaint indirectly, but most said it was easy to figure out). The second error was a misprinting of the circle for the final control (#9), which was placed on a rock/tree feature to the east of the intended rock/tree (the actual flag was at the correct spot, and the clue sheet was correct). Because the two similar features were in a direct line toward the Finish, apparently this didn't trip anyone up (although the control pickup person who finally pointed this out was a bit puzzled). This reminded us to carefully review premarked maps after printing, even though we think we already know what is on them. My apologies for the errors to anyone who had problems.

Competitors on the intermediate Orange course got to use e-punching, start and finish with the advanced orienteers, and cover terrain similar to that on the advanced courses, albeit with easier navigation and larger control features. Lukas Gruendler was nearly 15 minutes ahead of everyone else with a time of 51:10. Victoria Lee, the first woman, was 3rd in 1:08:04. And 13-year-old Rachel Care completed her first solo Orange course in 1:36:37 - good for 11th place and middle of the pack. Way to go, Rachel!

Advanced Courses

The four advanced courses, set by Thorsten Graeve, also drew a large crowd. We spent time over the past two years improving the map, adding unmapped rock features and correcting vegetation boundaries so that we could set more technical legs in more areas of the park. The advanced courses featured both short legs requiring quick and precise navigation as well as long legs with multiple route choices, and the climb was spread out to allow a fast pace. And, indeed, many people had excellent runs - the Almaden A-meet must have toughened up those hill-climbing muscles! The courses got good reviews, and there was lively discussion of the best route for the "long leg" common to each course.

To facilitate your route-choice discussions, we've posted a couple of master maps showing the control locations (warning: large files ahead!):

You can also get inside the course-setter's head by reading his commentary.

On Brown, Jim Waite bested the field in 43:49; Svetlana Kpelkina, the first woman, was 4th at 1:08:46. Brad Wetmore, a relative newcomer who's done a few Oranges and decided to tackle his first Brown, finished a respectable 10th (of 31). Green, as usual, was hard-fought by the usual suspects (Evan, Chuck, George, Dennis...), all of whom finished in under an hour. The nominal winner at 49:44 was Vlad Gusiatnikov, doing his third advanced course of the day; however, since Vlad did have a significant advantage by knowing the control locations, the real winner on Green was Chuck Spalding in 51:08. Yelena Krasnov was the first female finisher in 1:06:58.

On Red, Doug Stein scraped by the ubiquitous Vlad in 58:44 to take top honors. Vivian Lee, who has been improving dramatically over the past year, was the first (and only) woman, finishing in 1:28:52. And on the Blue course, which was somewhat shorter than usual, Syd Reader blew away his rivals in 59:08, nearly 7 minutes ahead of 2nd-place Steve Gregg. Penny DeMoss was (as usual) the top female, in 1:23:06.

And then there was Vlad...who decided to see how many courses he could complete (and how well) at one meet, starting with Blue and working his way down. He completed all four advanced courses, and finished in the top three on each: Blue (3rd), Red (2nd), Green (1st), and Brown (2nd). Of course, he had an advantage in that there was significant control overlap among the advanced courses (although he says he took different routes on some identical legs to see which was optimal), but that's still a lot of mileage, er, kilometers! He estimated that he ran a total of 25.45 km and climbed 1475 meters (based on straight-line/best routes for the courses plus four trips up to the remote start). His total time was 3:45:37 for the four courses, and his average minutes/km (from Blue to Brown) was 10:00/9:59/10:81/11:49. On the "long leg," his min/km was 9:33/8:00/10:45/11:44. (He says, "I ran that leg the same way all four times, without errors; pushed on Red, so that gives an idea of how much I was holding back on Blue and how tired I was on Green and Brown.")

In part, Vlad was responding to a challenge made by Werner Haag, who ran (and won) four courses at the 2001 China Camp meet. However, Werner's courses were White, Yellow, Orange, and Brown - so even though Vlad didn't win all four courses, he did harder and longer ones (and still finished in the top 3 each time). The gauntlet has clearly been thrown for the next challenger. Can anyone do a hat trick (all 7 in one day, top 5 finishes)?

Making It Happen

As always, this meet couldn't have happened without a lot of help from my clubmates. First and foremost, thanks to my partner in crime, Thorsten Graeve. We've done three B meets together now, and have gotten our routine down to a science; I will sorely miss working with him next year, as he moves on to bigger things (A-meet course-setting!). The rangers at Calero (Bill Burr and Marc Violette) have also been very accommodating, even offering to cut a fence for us on the crucial trajectory to the advanced finish. There's something to be said for building a rapport with the park staff!

I also appreciate the youth group sponsors who notified me ahead of time, so that I knew to expect a large turnout and could get enough maps printed (thanks, Bob Cooley!) and adequately staff the event. A turnout of 300 people requires many helping hands, and thanks to the following folks (some who signed up in advance, others who pitched in where needed during the event), the day went smoothly and we were all able to clean up and go home by 4:00 pm!


Results

WHITE       3.2 km, 60 m climb, 8 controls, 92 participants

    1 Jim Danz, Eric Trautman, Scott Ballatore        27:48
    2 Sean Coleman, AJ Artis, Tom Palmer              32:35
    3 Pablo, Julian                                   35:25
    4 Tyrra, Tyschell, Anhang, George, Alex           36:09
    5 Bonnie Chan, Sarah Engle, Chethana Damodara     36:21
    6 Mark & Candy Gularte, Pam Woods                 40:24
    7 Anna Tchetchetkine, Elana Share,
        Lindsay McLaughlin                            40:32
    8 Caroline & Vicki Lee                            41:41
    9 Jennifer Mateo, Dana Allen, Candice Paik        42:14
   10 Jessica Kreiss, Noelle Mason-Wood, 
        Becca Gularte                                 42:16
   11 Evida Mars-Holt, Kimi Su, Golnaz Samimifar      44:19
   12 Clare Livak                                     44:45
   13 Sue Trautman, Joe Chan                          45:55
   14 Nick, Jonathan                                  47:48
   15 Shireen & Behzad Ahmadi, Gillian Decker, 
        Sammie Jennings                               48:03
   16 Elena Livak                                     49:10
   17 Three Musketeers (GS Troop 341: Jenna Logan, 
        Gina Devincenzi, Samantha Jones, with 
        Mary & Alan Axworthy)                         50:00
   18 Adam Wisnewski, Debbie Ramm, Jami Edigan        50:19
   19 Paul & Kyle Umeda, Ian Axworthy                 51:26
   20 Bruce & Ryan Frambach                           51:29
   21 Diane Hall                                      52:40
   22 Amanda & Rebecca Hayton                         53:18
   23 Blue Jays (GS Troop 341: Rachel Shanley, 
        Miranda Axworthy, Hannah Bierach, Jennine 
        Grasso, with Judy Shanley & Betsy Tanner)     53:26
   24 Paul & Mike Hogan                               54:04
   25 Kira Lieberman, Andrea Herman, Alyssa Singh     54:57
   26 Amelia & Oona Gleeson, Lynsie Mason,
        Amy Spence, Kelsey Duncan (GS Troop 373)      57:44
   27 Wildflowers (GS Troop 341: Sydney Umeda, 
        Stephanie Ungson, Amanda Craine, with 
        Vickie Umeda)                                 59:28 
   28 Bevan Waite                                   1:01:05
   29 Michelle Reed, Sarah Wynne, Alex Hernandez 
        Mary, Kelsey, Brian  (GS Troop 373)         1:09:40
   30 Corynn Costa, Hailee, Danielle, Marie
        (GS Troop 373)                              1:10:38

      Stephanie McCain, Alex Diaz                       DNF


YELLOW      3.2 km, 160 m climb, 9 controls, 75 participants

    1 Jeremy Bricker                                  33:02
      Caroline Lee                                    39:30 (2nd course)
    2 Dewey Du Mond                                   42:22
    3 Sean & Bernhard Hiller                          51:35
    4 Liz Davis                                       51:55
    5 Matt Holman                                     54:58
    6 Antonio Gonzalez                                55:30
    7 Judy Koehler                                    55:52
    8 Yerneni family (3)                              56:14
    9 Carl & Aleene Reisinger                         57:15
   10 George & Terri Warren                         1:03:28
   11 Annie, Yelena, & Alex Erez                    1:04:55
   12 Ron & Emily Thumann, Rose Du Mond             1:09:38
   13 Denise Mottesheard, Alanna, Mark, Mike        1:10:45
   14 Galena Shakhnovsky                            1:13:55
   15 Bruce, Raquel, & Tania Reynolds               1:15:35
   16 Jeff & Ana Maria Boenig                       1:16:00
   17 Brian, Ian, Matt, & Emily Ferry               1:16:39
   18 Sam & Wes Maffei                              1:17:46
   19 Ev & Jean Beuerman                            1:24:35
   20 Rob & Nikole Clima, Jason Xuereb              1:26:30
   21 Jamie & Laura McKeegan, Kalvin Deng           1:28:20
   22 Mai & Jimmy Chung, Werner Haag                1:37:55
   23 Danielle, Caitlyn, Julia (GS Troop)           1:42:00
   24 Buzzard 1 (BS Troop 290: Aaron, Adam, Joel,
        Tony, Rudy)                                 1:48:36
   25 Buzzard 2 (BS Troop 290: Rob & RJ Aitken, 
        Kevin & Kurt Flammi, Jarrad Gardner)        1:50:33
   26 Buzzard 3 (BS Troop 290: Dan, Brendan, 
        Nick, Thiem)                                2:00:50
   27 Camila, Kari, Unique (GS Troop)               2:09:40
   28 Ed Cassada                                    2:19:50

      Frank Perez                                       DNF (missed #1)
      Kaitlyn, Sarah, Courtney (GS Troop)               DNF


ORANGE    4.05 km, 200 m climb, 13 controls, 34 participants     

    1 Lukas Gruendler                      51:10 
    2 Edward & Alexander Boenig          1:05:44 
    3 Victoria Lee                       1:08:04 
    4 Beth Dixon                         1:12:25 
    5 Michael Young                      1:15:04 
    6 Beatrix Paal                       1:19:16 
    7 Sean Campbell                      1:24:01 
    8 Cathy Bolger                       1:32:16 
    9 John Pagendarm                     1:32:40 
   10 Niloy Mitra & Erika Chuang         1:34:07 
   11 Rachel Care +1                     1:36:37 
   12 Mike & Tortyse Shadduck            1:38:12 
   13 Mike Christensen, Kathy Teatmeier  1:43:47 
   14 Bob Denike                         1:47:00 
   15 Mary Beth Kossuth, Damian Hajduh   1:48:17 
   16 Barbara Straka                     1:49:00 
   17 Jack Myers                         1:52:06 
   18 Larry Pagendarm                    2:04:15 
   19 Joseph Moore                       2:04:58 
   20 Trygve Thorsrud                    2:20:12 
   21 Don Gee                            2:20:25 
   22 Rick James                         2:22:05 
   23 Ken Livak                          2:24:24 
   24 Jill Custer                        3:42:39 

      Howard & Julie Graves                  DNF 
      Jeff Levin, Cheryl Parker              DNF 


BROWN     3.95 km, 220 m climb, 10 controls, 35 participants   

    1 Jim Waite                            43:49 
      Vlad Gusiatnikov                     45:24 (4th course)
    2 David Jorgensen                      58:25 
    3 Svetlana Kpelkina                  1:08:46 
    4 Patty Clemo                        1:11:02 
    5 Oleg Shakhnovsky                   1:11:12 
    6 Robert Lewis                       1:11:49 
    7 Bjorn Widerstrom                   1:12:15 
    8 Joan Roos                          1:13:05 
    9 Brad Wetmore                       1:13:30 
   10 Francois-Marie Lefevere            1:15:27 
   11 Bill Haughney                      1:16:00 
   12 Joe Scarborough                    1:16:22 
   13 Brad Johanson                      1:24:58 
   14 Sarah Rubinfeld                    1:27:13 
   15 Terry Farrah, John Maloney         1:33:57 
   16 Natasha Gelfand                    1:34:20 
   17 Vlad Fridman                       1:37:08 
   18 Trinka Gillis                      1:37:11 
   19 Rosemary Johnson                   1:46:23 
   20 Meg Gerstner                       1:47:29 
   21 Leslie Minarik                     1:47:29 
   22 Dana Chaney                        1:48:49 
   23 Julie VanHoff                      1:49:32 
   24 Dmitriy Volkov                     1:51:46 
   25 Alan, Andrew, & Geoffrey Theiss    1:54:44 
   26 Alan & Debra LaVergne              2:17:19 
   27 Nancy Lindeman                     2:27:22 

      Vasya Volkov                           DNF 
      Wes Erck                               DNF 
      Audrey Faist                           DNF 


GREEN      4.6 km, 280 m climb, 12 controls, 28 participants     

      Vlad Gusiatnikov                     49:44 (3rd course)
    1 Chuck Spalding                       51:08 
    2 Evan Custer                          54:07 
    3 George Minarik                       54:44 
    4 Lars Fjellbirkeland                  58:46 
    5 Alan Glendinning                     59:22 
    6 Dennis Wildfogel                     59:38 
    7 Bill Wright                        1:05:10 
    8 Yelena Krasnov                     1:06:58 
    9 Mike Fleishman                     1:09:32 
   10 Jerry Goss                         1:10:08 
   11 Genevieve Graves                   1:10:35 
   12 Johan Overby                       1:11:21 
   13 Eric Ramberg, Anna Brunzell        1:12:20 
   14 Bernhard Hiller                    1:16:36 
   15 Steve Haas                         1:17:14 
   16 Bill Straka                        1:21:59 
   17 Phillip Hoare                      1:22:04 
   18 Jeff Lanam                         1:25:12 
   19 Nick Corsano                       1:26:19 
   20 Dave Ingram                        1:31:03 
   21 Vic Revenko                        1:54:48 
   22 Steve Beuerman                     2:12:08 
   23 Bob & Cathy Baylor                 3:08:14 

      Bob Cooley                             DNF 
      Matt Holman                            DNF 


RED        6.2 km, 350 m climb, 16 controls, 19 participants     

    1 Doug Stein                           58:44
      Vlad Gusiatnikov                     59:28 (2nd course)
    2 Jeff Lewis                         1:02:26 
    3 Matthias Kohler                    1:02:53 
    4 Tapio Karras                       1:07:51 
    5 Kent Ohlund                        1:08:56 
    6 Dan Greene                         1:09:47 
    7 Alex Krasnov                       1:12:22 
    8 Eric Rosenzweig                    1:16:53 
    9 Andrejus Masalkovas                1:17:51 
   10 Tony Pinkham                       1:28:42 
   11 Vivian Lee                         1:28:52 
   12 Mark Blair                         1:33:47 
   13 Rod Jaehn                          1:37:09 
   14 Theo Verhoeven                     1:50:35 
   15 Parag Gupta                        2:21:36 

      Denis Kourakin                         DNF (missed #11)
      Sergey Rodionov                        DNF (missed #11)
      Greg Favor                             DNF 


BLUE       7.1 km, 400 m climb, 19 controls, 17 participants      

    1 Syd Reader                           59:08 
    2 Steve Gregg                        1:06:00 
    3 Vlad Gusiatnikov                   1:11:01 
    4 Vadimas Masalkovas                 1:14:43 
    5 Penny DeMoss                       1:23:06 
    6 Rex Winterbottom                   1:24:18 
    7 Otti Bisang                        1:27:23 
    8 Douglas Bass                       1:28:12 
    9 Mitsami Sugizaki                   1:32:14 
      Eric Rosenzweig                    1:33:34 (2nd course)
   10 Gavin Wyatt-Mair                   1:39:40 
   11 Peter Graube                       1:43:55 
   12 Liam Corner                        1:45:07 
   13 Dorsey Moore                       1:46:42 

      Jeff Hole, Liz Routch, Jocelyn Luo     DNF