What kind of a day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that make orienteering such a remarkable sport.
Too portentous for you?
It was, honestly, a remarkable day in many respects.
Weather conditions were supposedly ideal: 60° F, cloudy, with a light breeze. If you're a Floridian you know that's COLD and GRAY. And where was that sun those doofus weatherpeoplepersons were talking about all week? And that 3" to 4" of rain they gave us! Enough to flood Lake Prevatt up to my thighs as I was running the trail the White, Yellow and JROTC Orange courses were to follow along the lake edge.
Remarkably: (1) all the hikers on those courses found a way around the deep water after all and (2) It makes my day, running through deep water like that, and apparently several other folks as well.
These were the Florida Championships, if you'll recall, so CONGRATULATIONS to the Medal Winners:
| Course | Male | Female |
| Red | Arild Orsleie | Bev Ousley |
| Green | Mike Dempsey | -none- |
| Brown | John Crowley | Andy Holman |
| Orange | Walenty Prytulo | Heather Frazier |
| Yellow | Frank Brown | Jane Gallier |
| White | Jay Turner | -none- |
| Course | Male | Female |
| Red | Dave Ousley | -none- |
| Green | Derek Bohn | -none- |
| Brown | Ray Bruneau | Julie Minton |
| Orange | Dave Frazier | -none- |
| Yellow | Chuck Worischeck | Frances Hyde |
| White | -none- | -none- |
| Course | Male | Female |
| Red | Chris Johnson | -none- |
| Green | John Ide | -none- |
| Brown | -none- | -none- |
| Orange | Dan Mahnken | -none- |
| Yellow | -none- | Darlene Circle |
| White | -none- | -none- |
They will be receiving their medals in the mail soon.
As for the courses, the times were longer than usual with, at one extreme, the winning time on green being 108 minutes by Team Dirty Fish. That's almost unheard of, unless the coursesetter has done something weird. I had warned everyone to expect seriously difficult courses, but it seems I overdid it here and there just a little. I'm nearly sorry. Thankfully only the Yellow course DQ'ed a lot; almost 1/3 of entries. Most people finished, it just appears as though most struggled more than usual.
For instance, Ron Eaglin remarkably blew 23 minutes, and his shot at a medal, on a single control Red #2 (a location I think he's even visited before) so as Ron is probably FLO's fastest runner, it proves that speed isn't everything in O'. Chris Johnson edged out Nigel Gallier for the Red Bronze by only 1:35, so I believe Nigel will be mulling over some little errors here and there. Same is true on Orange where Dave Frazier took the Silver by 20 seconds over Dave Mahnken. On Green, Paul Hession and Mike Dempsey would both have medaled except for a mispunch by each on control number 6, where they mistook an adjacent control (GA) as the one (AR) they were looking for. It hurts me to DQ them like that, so I'm trying to think of a consolation prize. The 45 meter separation of the two controls was in accord with IOF/USOF rules, by the way.
FLO successfully endured the intense scrutiny of a zealous ranger who made us rearrange vehicles, and the other ranger forgetting to open the bathrooms for us. We abided by all our permit rules for parking and clean up. We only left 9 controls in the woods (to be retrieved later). We left no participants in the woods - in fact all were back by 3:00 PM for the first time ever, I think - remarkable! And we had flush toilets and a cozy indoor auditorium for comfort.
We hosted 238 individuals and started 248 total, since several went out twice. When we couple that with the 100+ on the JROTC courses, we will be averaging almost exactly 250 people per event for the year 2002. That's worth a Huge "Congratulations" to all, for your support, your attendance, and for your help in making it all happen.
I must say Thank You to all the helpers for this event, whether I remember your names here or not. It was enormously gratifying for Janet & me to show up at the park gate at 8:00 am sharp and find Nigel & Jane Gallier, Joe Maliszewski, and Arild Orsleie already waiting for us, and then to have Bev & Dave Ousley and Russ Steinke drive up within 10 minutes. Then of course they all pitched in to help everywhere, while I was enjoying my early morning by running the red course, placing controls. Jonathan Linforth dragged himself out of sickbed to ferry the pre-marked maps (which he had printed off himself earlier in the week - Thanks to Jon for that!) to the event and naturally he was here at 8:10 also. A few helpers like Ray Bruneau showed up and we had nothing for them to do. Glen Holman thought he would simply wait (not feeling 100%) while wife Andy ran Brown but we put him to work anyway (Andy says it'll teach him to never again show up and not run) on Start/Finish for about 2 hours. Dave Botonis from Sebastian River HS put together a team of JROTC helpers, relieving FLO of all that, and they did an outstanding job. Russ Steinke graciously volunteered at the last minute to serve as EC (meaning he stays to the bitter end of the day) and told me later he spent the last hour improving upon the HS cadets' attempts to clean the auditorium well enough for inspection and check out. Thank you Russ, because I know, too well, what that's like. Thanks to ALL!
Hope you had fun. Hope you learned a lot. Hope you all enjoyed finding some of those practically-glow-in-the-dark brand-new controls. Hope you like the pre-marked maps. Hope you didn't even notice that the maps were printed on a home ink-jet. And finally: Hope to see you all in the woods again real soon.
Bob Putnam
| Name | Time |
| Grant Wheeler (2) | 35:03 |
| Sarasota JROTC (10) | 48:00 |
| Michael & Cindy Reynolds (2) | 55:10 |
| Jay Turner (1) G | 61:22 |
| Troop 99 (4) | 61:59 |
| Winter Park JROTC (6) | 93:18 |
| Winter Park JROTC (6) | 102:52 |
| Pradella (2) | DNF |
| Susan Hewlings (3) | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Frank Brown (1) G | 48:05 |
| Troy Hamilton (3) | 61:30 |
| Jane Gallier (1) G | 65:40 |
| Pradella 2nd (2) | 73:23 |
| Dennis Godber (4) | 74:16 |
| Chuck Worischeck (1) S | 83:02 |
| Troop 38 (3) | 84:34 |
| Kristin Caruso (2) | 85:20 |
| Oviedo JROTC #1 (2) | 92:15 |
| Frances Hyde (1) S | 94:00 |
| Sarasota JROTC #4 (5) | 95:50 |
| Ron Wells (2) | 105:05 |
| Troop 524 B (5) | 114:28 |
| Troop 524 C (5) | 126:00 |
| Darlene Circle (1) B | 130:00 |
| Cypress Creek JROTC#1 (4) | DNF |
| Cypress Creek JROTC#2 (4) | DNF |
| Cypress Creek JROTC #3 (3) | DNF |
| Sarasota JROTC #3 (4) | DNF |
| Oviedo JROTC #3 (3) | DNF |
| Winter Park JROTC#3 (6) | DNF |
| Troop 99 #2 (3) | DNF |
| Shirley Eckes (8) | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| 2nd Andrea Holman (1) | 41:50 |
| Walenty Prytulo(1) G | 43:44 |
| Boone JROTC#4 (5) | 58:00 |
| The Rosenbergs (2) | 60:34 |
| Boone JROTC#3 (5) | 61:00 |
| Boone JROTC #7 (4) | 63:29 |
| Dave Frazier (1) S | 66:05 |
| David Mahnken(1) B | 66:25 |
| Boone #5 (4) | 67:15 |
| Sampoux (1) | 70:09 |
| Chris Johnson (2) | 70:27 |
| Boone#6 (3) | 74:27 |
| The McGraths (2) | 76:38 |
| Oviedo JROTC#2 (3) | 78:50 |
| Boone JROTC#8 (5) | 81:10 |
| JJ Richards (3) | 82:34 |
| Rodney Counts (2+dog) | 87:14 |
| Pardy & Luther (2) | 88:19 |
| Boone JROTC#1 (5) | 89:00 |
| Scott Nelson (1) | 92:50 |
| Alicia Johnson (2) | 102:34 |
| Durjan & Snow (2) | 102:42 |
| The Kreiners (3) | 103:10 |
| Heather Frazier (1) G | 104:27 |
| Troop 524 A (3) | 109:10 |
| Susan Smith (6) | 118:03 |
| Troop 524 D (3) | 129:43 |
| Troop 560 (6) | DQ |
| Sarasota JROTC #2 (3) | DNF |
| Carol Franke (1) | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Andrea Holman (1) G | 60:10 |
| John Crowley (1) G | 75:47 |
| Ray Bruneau (1) S | 97:31 |
| Julie Minton(1) S | 100:20 |
| Jim Feudner (2) | 105:51 |
| Bret Barker (2) | 126:07 |
| A.C. Jax (5) | 149:00 |
| Steve & Julie Royer (2) | DQ |
| Mark Ritchhart (1) | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Dirty Fish (2) | 108:00 |
| Mike Dempsey (1) G | 111:00 |
| Dennis Clayburn (2) | 115:45 |
| Derek Bohn (1) S | 131:03 |
| John Ide (1) B | 143:45 |
| Paul Hession (1) | MP |
| David Crane (1) | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Arild Orsleie (1) G | 71:45 |
| Dave Ousley (1) S | 81:14 |
| Chris Johnson (1) B | 84:25 |
| Nigel Gallier (1) | 86:00 |
| Barry Hyde (1) | 91:00 |
| Ron Eaglin (1) | 93:45 |
| Joe Maliszewski (1) | 100:09 |
| Bev Ousley (1) G | 115:50 |
| Dwayne Jenkins (2) | 138:50 |
| Ken Miller (1) | 140:49 |
| Jim Hartnett (1) | 150:00 |
| Shuman (1) | 150:00 |
| Brian Clapp (2) | 171:55 |
| Jeff Guy (2) | 173:55 |
| Inga Martinez (3) | 178:20 |
| Jackie Hugar (2) | DNF |
| Chizlett (3) | DNF |
| G | Gold Medal |
| S | Silver Medal |
| B | Bronze Medal |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified |
| MP | Mis-punched |
| NTR | No Time Recorded |