Weather: 30-35° & cloudy with occasional snow showers

Attendance: 49 in 34 groups

Thanks for meet assistance: Steve Barnhart, Tom Svobodny, Tom McClory, and Vince Hand

The courses were the same that were run the previous day at the MVOC Jr. Orienteering Championships. Competitors can compare their results with others who ran the same course the previous day. Piqua and Badin High School teams in particular may want to do this.

The top 1/3 of finishers on a course (not counting OT's) should consider moving to the next higher course. Finishers with an OT or DNF should move to an easier course and master it (top 1/3) before moving higher.

On the white course Hillary Swift flew through the controls and then tried her hand at the yellow course. On that she quit early because she knew her dad, Bill Swift, was probably waiting for her. Congratulations to Tom McClory on the yellow course who posted a winning time and then stayed to help me log finishers. Brad Stork handily won the orange course where is was also reported that Claire Dell easily passed several orange groups in the woods. Bill Swift was standing there ready to start, after registering for the red course, and decided at the last moment to switch to green. To the chagrin of many, he blew away the competition. Bill ran green because Pat Meehan ran green. Pat ran green because all his ROKS kids ran green. All the ROKS kids ran green because all the competition they want to gauge themselves against (the other schools' top runners in the Friday O Champs) ran green. It's an interesting domino effect. On the red course, Thomas Jarzen travelled from Georgia to beat the pants off the competition. In all fairness to Joe Smindak, if we take ten minutes off his time that would be closer to his normal pace and the contest would have been really close. Ten minutes is the size of the error he made out of the start triangle. Joe is gearing up for the Flying Pig and has been really pushing his pace in the woods. The Shamrock Hunt is the first time he got a first look at his map while on the clock and he ran off without a proper initial map study.

For the benefit of all of us, let's review what should be done if we are going to get our first look at the map while we're on the clock. First, we get ready to run by the time we step into the start box. If the clue sheet was available before starting (as it always should be for an A-meet) you should already know the first control feature to look for and its control code. In the box, before we turn over the map, check which direction is north and make note of a landmark in that direction. Also note other landmarks and how they are arranged around you. If you can see through the map, you may be able to align it to north as you flip it over when they say go. If not, quickly align it with the north landmark as soon as it's right side up. Now look for the start triangle. When found, plan a route choice to the first control and then start running that direction. Since you oriented your map to the terrain immediately upon turning it over, the direction to travel on the map along your planned route is the direction to travel on the ground. After these first few steps you can pick up the speed and run like the wind. It's important not to rush the initial look at the map. There's a lot to do to get started in the right direction. The time it takes to get started correctly is not time wasted. It is time invested. Some people can go through the above process from the whistle to accelerating to race pace in three seconds. Others take almost a minute. In either case it is time well spent.

I enjoyed seeing the scouts on the courses at least as much as they enjoyed their campout at Woodland Trails that weekend. I think everyone had a good time even though March was still very much like a lion, and no one complained (too much) about the controls.

Matt Bond
Meet Director

In the result tables below:
MVOC = Miami Valley Orienteering Club
FHS = Fairborn High School Air Force JROTC
PHS = Piqua High School Navy JROTC
ROKS = Rams O Klub at Badin High School, Hamilton, Ohio
BSA = Boy Scouts of America
GSUSA = Girl Scouts USA
OCIN = Orienteering Cincinnati
GAOC = Georgia Orienteering Club
OT = Overtime
DNF = Did not finish (number of controls visited)