Sacramento Bar Meet
March 26th, 2023
Welcome Back Orienteering! Welcome Map-heads and Compass Crazies and adventurers alike. After a long hiatus from our traditional events, Gold Country Orienteering kicked off the 2023 season in spectacular fashion. A gorgeous Spring Day greeted the participants early Sunday morning and promised an unforgettable experience in navigating the detailed map of the area.
Huge kudos to Jonas Libell for staging 6 terrific courses across two sides of the beautiful American River Parkway. Jonas was in his usual high achieving course setter form when he presented participants with White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Brown, and Red courses. There was a selection for every type and level of Orienteer-er. Every course displayed his signature dynamic course setting imprint of strategy and skill balancing. Thank you, Jonas Libell.
Another absolute necessity to our event was Paul Keaton. Paul was flawless and precise in the registration process. It’s not always easy to handle the early morning registration rush, but Paul positively punctuated a perfect process performance with a pleasant smile. His impeccable handwriting can save the world from any miscommunication due to subpar penmanship. Thank you, Paul Keaton.
Danny Lulla, the newest rock (cobble) star to our Gold County Orienteer’s volunteer team handled the start line like a seasoned professional. Danny guided newbies and veteran racers through the start process with a steady calm normally associated with brain surgeons, without any elevated ego that should accompany such greatness in poise. Once he sent you on your way, you were guaranteed a brilliant experience. Thank you, Danny Lulla.
And no GCO event is complete without the help of Dwight Freud at the finish line. Bringing his vast knowledge of the area and sport, all your questions will be answered (as you’re desperately inhaling as much oxygen as possible) at the finish line. Dwight’s brain is a hybrid of advance Excel functions and the poetic capacity of Kahlil Gibran, allowing him to compute time differences while waxing on that which cannot be quantified. Thank you, Dwight Freud.
On to the Event
The competition was fierce Sunday. Especially among the Lincoln High of Stockton NJROTC. Leslie Alston has his teams fired up from the start and the heat continued throughout the course for each team. Of the four teams to venture into the scrum of mapping madness, only two managed to successful accomplish location and control punching of the hidden flags. Congratulations to teams NJ ROTC A and NJ ROTC C. Nicely done. (See results)
On the White course, Marsha Jacobs showed the field of competitors, that years of volunteering for GCO pays off ten-fold in course performance. With the quickest time, she edged out Derek Daun and Carrie Yang who also had a perfect performance on the course by finding all the controls while still logging a very respectable time.
The Yellow course saw the second largest group of competitors. Team Mistry Machine (Anthony and Eva) set a course record today for the fastest time ever for a Yellow course on a March 26th, 2023 event. In a very close second was Andrew Mau, who also logged the second fastest time ever on the same date. We already sense a rivalry between these two in our next events. Congrats to NJ ROTC C for finishing out the top three positions, refusing to be denied a position on the podium.
The Brown course, known for attracting precision navigators, saw the closest competition among the larger groups. Coming in for a one/two double whammy was Olga Kraght in first and Gary Kraght in second. Dinner might have been awkward that evening. Randy Robinson avoided any family drama by selecting the third position as his arrival time. Jay Hann, who gets our GCO celebrity award was only a minute behind Randy. Jennifer Kerr and Danny and Deanna Lulla demonstrated the precision capability of the Brown course participants by completing the perfect location performance of the Brown group.
Moving to the distance course. A long Red course entices those who wish to suffer and have fun in the process. Logging roughly seven miles or longer, depending on course route, the Red group arrived at Dwight’s finish line exhausted and hungry, but happy to be enshrined as finishers of the most difficult course for the day. It was Rex Winterbottom, esteemed event designer, achieving a narrow margin over famed adventure racer, Roy Malone. Less than 6 minutes separated the one/two. Nik Weber and Gavin Wyatt-Mair also had a very respectable finish on the punishing Red course.
Congratulations to all for giving it your best shot. We will return in May for another event at Mississippi Bar. As a reminder, we are a volunteer run event. If you have time to commit to making these events even better, please contact us.
Dan Rathbun
Complete results list is a pdf-file here.
˙Total Participants: 53
Back to Results