If the two days of orienteering at Oscar Scherer were to be judged on the basis of the number of entries it would be a stretch to call the event a success. If it were to be judged on the expressions of enjoyment by the participants, the appreciation by those local orienteers who did join in and the high percentage of successful completion of their courses then it was a great success.

Oscar Scherer State Park is an expansive area consisting of a mixture of scrub, pinewoods and oak hummocks. It is trisected by an old railway line now used as a bike trail and a stream becoming a creek. Those two obstacles along with expansive areas of scrub and palmetto make course setting a challenge. The extensive trail network brings participants to all corners of the park. From eagles to gopher tortoises to a bobcat the event participants got to see a lot of wildlife. However nothing was like the scrub jay who treated the course setter to an exhibition of precision dive bombing one day.

The events? David Ashley and May-Li Cuypers were the stars of the weekend. Ashley unfortunately mispunched on the Red course on Saturday but came back to clear the 3-hour Score Course in 2:34:14. Cuypers won the Red course on Saturday and also scored the perfect 500 points on Sunday, taking 2:57:30. First year orienteer Jim Nici of Naples showed lots of promise by placing second on Saturday and third on Sunday.

As they did at the Punta Gorda event in October the students of Charlotte High School NJROTC did a great job handling the registration, start and finish for both the JROTC and the public events. They also provided post-race snacks for everyone.

Lemon Bay High School was left to carry off the first two places in the Yellow Team event as other teams from LBHS and Charlotte each DQed one of their members. Noteworthy on the Yellow course was the close race and great times by Busque of Lemon Bay and Oates of Charlotte. I could see a promising future at the state if not the national level for these two speedsters.

On Sunday the Charlotte HS contingent divided themselves in to groups of three to test run a Team Score competition. Teams of three were assigned to visit and punch in at 15 controls. Only one person on each team had to visit any one control. As team members finished their assigned controls they waited at an assembly area for the last team member to arrive before they could check in. The team of Guerin, Dylan Sands and his father took first place. Based on the interest and excitement I saw I’d certainly recommend more competitions on this format, not only for scout and cadet groups but also for corporate events.

The next event for the Suncoast orienteers will be the Mabry Carlton Orienteering Festival. Four regular orienteering courses will be set along with at least one Bike-O and an adventure duathlon (foot and bike O in one event).

Gord Hunter
Event director

YELLOW

Name	School	Time
Busque	LBHS	0:28:39
Oates	CHS	0:29:21
Taylor	CHS	0:44:40
Green	LBHS	0:45:05
S Moore	LBHS	0:47:22
I Jenkins	LBHS	0:52:25
T Heimann	LBHS	0:54:09
F Szoke	LBHS	0:58:55
Richard Trehyba		0:59:35
D Burns	LBHS	1:01:05
Yates	LBHS	1:19:50
Bogafous	LBHS	DQ
Sands	CHS	DQ

ORANGE

Name	Club	Time
Terry Keegan	NEOC	1:03:17
Susan Goodwin	UNO	1:36:03
Team Lacross		1:23:46
Charlotte HS		1:38:32

GREEN

Name	Club	Time
Chuck Ferguson	QOC	1:13:13
Rich Parker	SDO	1:15:38
Mal Harding	QOC	1:17:46
Peter Goodwin	UNO	1:22:39
Mark Cicharski	COC	1:30:30
Joe Maliszewski	FLO	1:45:40
Don Hall	NEOC	1:53:54
Dixie Hollins #3		2:36:48
Dixie Hollins #2		2:45:40
Dixie Hollins #1		2:47:05
Dixie Hillins #4		2:47:05

RED

Name	Club	Time
May-Li Cuypers	FLO	1:27:56
James Nici	Suncoast	1:31:52
David Shuman	FLO	1:36:05
Go Blue	FLO	1:48:19
Donna Fluegel	WCOC	2:19:04
Steve Fluegel	WCOC	2:46:30
David Ashley		DQ

DNF	Did Not Finish
DQ	Disqualified (Missed Controls)
OT	Over 3 Hour Time Limit