January 19, 2008
Last updated: Thursday, 07-Feb-2008 21:56:05 PST
So what is it with the rain? Yes, we're used to it around here, but how is it that is rains the heaviest during the meets but not before or after? Such was the case at Saturday's meet at Priest Point Park in Olympia. The volunteers packing up equipment after the meet were greeted with blue (or at least lighter) skies, a marked contrast the prevailing metereological conditions during the meet.
Just the same, WIOL participants were undaunted by the weather, and there were some competitive performances.
On the Elementary School Boys course, Steve Roberts edged Nathan Klinge by 68 seconds, and clinched first place for the season.
Among the Middle School Girls, Clare McMahon (EAS) showed who, in the absence of Kenmore's season-leading Hilary Ratliff, she thinks is the best, winning by nearly seven minutes over team mate Cherry Wu. Cherry has clinched third for the season - but still has a chance to take second place.
Garfield's Tracy Whelen also won her course (High School JV Girls) by nearly seven minutes, ahead of Lakeside's Laura Coffin, and moved into first place for the season. Bonnie Gilbery (EAS) was zapped again by her apparent "Second Control Curse". If her time on that control had been the same as Tracy's (4:43) instead of her actual time of 19:23, Bonnie would have finished just four seconds behind Tracy. As it was, Bonnie was faster than Tracy on six of the eleven legs, and was the fastest on three of them. Bonnie can still win the season, however, if she wins at Fire Mountain on February 2nd. Third place is up for grabs between Sarah Rogers (Kopachuck), Kelly Bauer (Northwest School), and Laura Coffin (Lakeside). By the way, Bonnie wasn't the only one challenged by control #2 - see the split times.
At the beginning of this season, Kathy Forgrave (Kristy and Becky's mom) opined that this was going to be a very competitive season for JV Girls. She was right.
Matt Hjelm (Issaquah) won his second meet of the season in High School JV Boys, a clear two and a half minutes ahead of Thomas Jefferson's Daniel Gonzales. Matt is currently in second in the season standings and has a chance to dislodge Drew Inglis (Lakeside) with a good run at Fire Mountain.
Bremerton's Claudia Guenther won her second meet of the season, moving her into first in the standings for High School Varsity Girls. Lakeside's Holly Kuestner (who was competing in an O' meet in San Diego, where it was warm and sunny) and team mate Tori Borish (who was competing in a science Olympiad, which was indoors and dry) can take first if they win at Fire Mountain. If either of them does so, the other will end the season in third place and Claudia in second.
Claudia wrote an article for the current issue of Cascade OC's newsletter, Bearing 315 about orienteering in Germany and her experiences here. The newsletter is edited by Holly Kuestner.
Huw Stradling (Redmond) posted a decisive win in High School Varsity Boys, five minutes ahead of Reid Mayfield (Thomas Jefferson) and Ryan Breseman (Inglemoor) - whose times were just four seconds apart. Nonetheless, Ryan secured third place for the season (boys who needed to do well Saturday to displace him, didn't). Huw can still win the season - and we might need to invoke tie-breaking to determine whether he or Matej Urban (Bothell) wins.
Amazingly, no one else (other than those mentioned above) has clinched their season standing beyond those named after WIOL #5 (see WIOL 5 news). Who says WIOL isn't competitive?
Additional teams clinching their season place: