76 individuals enjoyed what had to be the most spring like, most beautiful day yet this year.  Folks traveled from ICO, CCO, and MVOC (Indianapolis, Columbus and Dayton).  The Wilmington College Orienteering Club, as well as the Hamilton High School NJROTC, arrived in force.

 

Mother Nature bestowed a gift of sunshine and temperatures well-above average.  It was down right heavenly.  No one was in a hurry to leave.  Conversations erupted around and about the shelters occupied by the oddly attired and curiously mellow group of humans. Many remained to enjoy the park at a slower pace or from a more inspiring vantage point.

 

The ground remained saturated through to the bedrock with rain from storms long past and the melting product of several layers of snow.  That morning, event organizers experienced the sensation of jogging on an icy and crunchy crust of earth sliding over a lower slippery membrane of mud.  Later that day the competitors found the same ground to be a soupy mass of slime.  This was evident from the clothing of those impervious individuals.  This obviously added to the fun, which they wore like a badge of accomplishment.

 

Harbin Park consists of a wide variety of terrain.  The southern half is a collection of open meadows separated by hidden dry-ditches covered in vegetation so thick I heard them referred to as hedgerows.  The runability in this part of the park is well invited by all levels of competition but the beginner and intermediate courses are truly at home here.  The northern half of the park consists of dense and open forest laying over a system of ridges and reentrants that enhance the challenge that orienteering has to offer.  Various portions of the forest contain meandering (and some say down right confusing) mountain bike trails and the occasional massive tree (7 – 8 feet in diameter).  Harbin is perhaps the most beautiful and friendly mapped park in the area.  If you have not yet been there, you truly must give it a look.

 

The competition was head to head!  As you look at the results you may discern many very-hot races; differentiated by only seconds, not minutes.    On the Yellow course the top two Hamilton High teams were narrowly separated by 21 seconds, Hume & Baker taking the prize over Schweinfest & Fugate.  “If only…”, I hear them pondering now.  Next time is another time. 

 

Also on yellow, Katie Williams tried her hand at soloing one course up from her previous comfort level.  She was bested by the gang from Wilmington College.  However, with a margin of 49 seconds, I think even the collegiates will symbolically tip their hat to the nine year old.

 

On the Orange course Jason Horn mastered Eric Tullis by a mere 68 seconds, while Eric held off the top Hamilton High team by only 140 seconds himself.  Congratulations to Jeremy Smith & Jacob Carrao on an outstanding performance!  The next two Hamilton High teams were less than 2% apart in total time.  We could not have designed a more exciting finish.

 

The Brown course (Oh my god, the brown course) offered the closest finishing times.  OCIN’s own Mike Minium overthrew ROKS top contender, David Frederick, by a margin of 40 seconds!  David held on for the longest time, beating the best that OCIN had to offer until Mike vanquished the young man.  Close behind David were Bill Swift and Warren Mandrell, virtually neck and neck. The two were only separated by a matter of 3 seconds.  (Warren, why’d you stop for that water, dude?) If that wasn’t close enough, Vince Hand wedged a victory over Bob Frey by 2 simple seconds! 

 

The Red course offered the same tight competition. Jason Horn subdued Aaron Rourke by a dozen clicks of the clock.

 

This was the second consecutive event hosted by the Badin High School Orienteering club (ROKS).  They will be hosting their last event of the spring season on April 3^rd at Rentschler Park.  If you enjoyed yourself these past two weeks, then by all means favor them with your return visit in April. 

 

The Badin crew consisted of:

 

Mike Benge

Christina Fohl

David Frederick

Mark Hagen

Kyle Kollstedt

Brennan Lawall

Emily Lawall

Jen Meehan

Joe Moran

 

 

Thanks to all that partook.

 

Pat Meehan

Coach, Badin ROKS

 1	15:27	OCIN 		William Dickenson, Chris Fairchild
 2	32:01	OCIN		Harry, Nancy, and Daniel Turner
 3	34:05	MVOC		Sharon and Ben Bond
 4	41:48			Jeanne and Mike Rieches
 5	71:46			Wen Zhu

 1	16:26	ROKS 		Mike Benge
 2	29:59	ROKS 		Joe Moran
 3	32:58	OWC		Josh Bluck, Jillian Williams, & Natalia Fetter
 4	45:40	HHS	NJROTC	Hume & Baker
 5	46:01	HHS	NJROTC	Schweinfest & Fugate
 6	50:14	OWC		Julia Bailey, Greg Garland, & Chet Linebaugh
 7	51:03	OCIN		Katie Williams
 8	54:03	HHS	NJROTC	Reichers & Elkin
 9	62:17	HHS	NJROTC	Morey & Rolfes
10	73:00	ROKS		Christina Fohl
11	74:20			Steve, Susan, & Becky Miller, and Chris Taylor
12	77:32	OCIN		Harts
13	78:20			Steve Brown
   untimed			Lisa Price
 

 1	 53:12 			Jason Horn
 2	 54:20	ICO		Eric Tullis
 3	 56:40	HHS	NJROTC	Jeremy Smith & Jacob Carrao
 4	 62:32	ROKS		Mike Benge
 5	 70:23	ROKS		Kyle Kollstedt
 6	 99:56	OCIN		Marion Lytle & Joyce Whalen
 7	104:56	ICO		Frank & Frankie Baukert
 8	140:00	HHS	NJROTC	Merida & Miller
 9	142:47	HHS	NJROTC	Gibson & Retherford
10	176:22	MVOC		Mike Berna & Cory
    DNF 	HHS	NJROTC	Apodaca & Blankenship

 1	38:42	OCIN		Mike Minium
 2	39:22	ROKS 		David Frederick
 3	41:27	OCIN 		Bill Swift
 4	41:30	OCIN 		Warren Mandrell
 5	57:10			Gerald Yip
 6	60:38	OCIN 		Vince Hand
 7	60:40	OCIN 		Bob Frey
 8	66:10	ROKS 		Jen Meehan
 9	69:38	OCIN 		Dick Arnett
10	74:10	OCIN 		Claire Dell
11	90:50	COO 		Alexander Preobrazhensky
12	91:32	MVOC		Brad Stork

 1	 69:59			Jason Horn
 2	 70:10	OCIN 		Aaron Rourke
 3	 72:57	MVOC 		Larry Berna
 4	 85:33	OCIN 		Todd & Susan Henson
 5	 87:48	OCIN 		Kevin Mitchell
 6	 88:37		 	Dave Click
 7	 96:47	OCIN 		Matthew Robbins
 8	101:57	OCIN 		John Wyrick and Family
 9	124:06	OCIN		Victoria Huseman
   DNF		MVOC 		Tom Svobodny