Lake Needwood

Course results can be seen below as well as on Attackpoint and WinSplits. To enter your routes and see how others went, head to RouteGadget.

Save the Date! Our next event is Sunday, April 3 at Manassas National Battlefield Park.

We had a great day at Lake Needwood. The weather forecasters had been predicting a chilling rain, but it stayed dry throughout the meet – then finally let loose as the control pickup crew headed out. This is one of the club’s newest maps, and it’s a good one: accurate, up-to-date, and consistent in its level of detail. That said, it provides a big challenge to the Course Setter. The park is very long and narrow, and is divided by a major uncrossable stream. There are plenty of bridges, but nevertheless, those constraints make it much harder to devise legs with interesting route choices. Course Setter Mihai Sirbu did an outstanding job. The very small number of DNF’s shows that his courses were at an appropriate level, and the even smaller number of MP’s shows that his control placements were spot on. (Those new to the sport: Do you realize that the Course Setter hangs out all those controls him/herself? It’s an all day job, done the day before the meet. Luckily, collecting them at the end of the meet goes much faster, thanks to the help of many volunteers, who each go out and collect 5-6 control flags.)

Speaking of volunteers, many thanks to all the people who helped make the event run so smoothly, not only those who had signed on in advance to help out, but also to those who jumped in on the spur of the moment when the need arose.

First and foremost, of course, the amazing timing/results team: Valerie Meyer, Amy Louden, Mary Snieckus, and Tori Campbell.
The calm and competent registration crew: Eva Matveeva, Helena Mora-Jensen, Ben Roberts, and Lee Todd.
The inspiring Beginner Instructors: Craig Shelden and Stephanie Coffin.
The people who stepped in and provided beginner’s and even intermediate instruction when we had a sudden flood of demand at the last minute: Christiana Logansmith, Jane Leggett, and Sara Lemanski.
The Course Setter himself, who gave a special clinic on route choice for intermediate and advanced O’ers: Mihai Sirbu. The rain-soaked control pickup crew: Michael Dickey, Greg Palardy, Eugene Tsypnyatov, Anne Jepsen, Kim Jepsen, and Charles Carrick.

- Diana Todd, Meet Director