Sprint Finale-O Results

Wednesday September 25, 2024
Ruth Arcand Park

Over sixty orienteers came out to the Ruth Arcand Park on Wednesday for a sprint pursuit final. The weather was cool and damp but held back from raining throughout most of the event. We saw some fast and tightly contested finishes and glimpses of competitors making quick decisions as they navigated the courses. We also welcomed a handful of first-time orienteers, just in time to get a taste as this season approaches its end.

While starts occurred throughout the evening, we kicked off the first pursuit at 5:10pm, with Cory Smith leading off his first chaser by a 40-second gap onto the long course (3.4 km, 18 controls). It came down to the wire at the finish, with Cory and Max Romey neck-and-neck. Max landed his ePunch on-target to finish ahead, edging out Cory, whose near simultaneous punch attempt came out on top, thus forcing a wait of a few more seconds before there was space to dip and clock out.

Also on the long course, Springer Moore led off the pursuit for the top five men in the sprint standings at 6pm, with a 70-second gap on his father Ian. But with the top time of 20:26 on the long course, Scott Patterson pulled ahead, winning the men’s race and the sprint series title by a margin of about two minutes in each case. The 26-second spread between the 2nd and 3rd place men’s times on the long course translated into a tighter two-second margin for these competitors in the pursuit finish, with Allan Spangler narrowly edging out Ian Moore to the final control.

At 6:10pm, the women’s pursuit set out, led by Jen Jolliff with a comfortable gap of over 4 minutes. This was sufficient cushion for Jen to end the night as women’s sprint champion. Jen also led the night with her long course time of 29:21, fending off strong closing speed from Julia Ditto, who took second place for women 20 seconds back. Brittany Hippe rounded out the women’s long course in third place.

On the short course (2.2 km, 13 controls), siblings Hatcher and Talia Smith repeated their feat as respective men’s and women’s winners, which they had previously accomplished in this year’s sprint series opener at Earthquake Park.

The planning and coordination for this pursuit sprint finale was spearheaded by Dorn Van Dommelen with input from many others on the club board. After competing, we were mostly able to duck out of the rain into the pavilion for pizza and refreshments—thanks to Mike for arranging that and running the annual meeting.

Thank you to Mark Findlay, Michael Malvick and numerous others who helped me get the starting area set up quickly. Thank you to Allan for helping to register the bulk of the participants before going out for his start and to Max for jumping in to help with registrations after his finish. And thank you to Scott and Alex Knapp for picking up controls and helping me depart before it got too dark!

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