The first Suncoast Orienteering Championships now belong to history. However on Saturday March 16th the event was very much alive and kicking at Lake Manatee State Park in Manatee County.
Almost 140 cadets and a handful of ‘civilians’ tackled the tangled terrain of the small but popular state park. Among the participants were Richard and Lorna Guttormson from Canada and the Schlier family from Germany. The latter were camping in the park and decided to add orienteering to their list of American experiences.
Thanks to the use of the Winter Park High School JROTC electronic timing system we were able to set courses that crossed over themselves and passed through the Finish ‘arena’ part way through each course. The added advantage was that team mates and family could cheer each other on and get photos of the participants in action.
The nature of the Lake Manatee terrain is that short compass legs dominated. That seemed to be to the students liking as there was a very high rate of successful completion on each course. Only eleven of the cadets failed to complete their courses.
A mere four participants signed up for the longer Red course with its remote start. The highlight of the course was the special fence crossing that the park’s volunteer crew built to allow for better course design and ease the passage from one part of the park to the next. Bob Putnam won the Men’s Red course in a time of 1:08:24 for the 6 km course. He would have been just a minute ahead of George Walker of Connecticut who flew in with wife Lyn for a weekend away from the snow and a run in the Florida terrain. However Walker was so anxious to try out the fence step crossing that he neglected to punch in at the control preceding it. Mike Warburton took second place. Kris Mante was the top and only female on the Red Course.
The top three male and female finishers on each course were given a small framed montage of photos of park scenes designating them as first, second or third in the first Suncoast Orienteering Championships. On the Yellow, Orange and Green courses all the top finishers were JROTC competitors showing that they are coming along in the depth and the quality of their orienteering skills. It also showed that a heck of a lot of FLO and Suncoast regulars unfortunately decided to give this event a pass.
Lyn Walker, down for the weekend from Connecticut, had the best female time on the Green Course. For that she was given a very strong round of applause by the cadets.
In the JROTC team competitions there proved to be strength in numbers and in experience as Central High School from Brooksville took first in all three team awards and beat out Winter Park High School from, well, Winter Park for the overall prize. Krop HS of Miami placed third. Other than the schools north of Tampa the best Suncoast results came from Amy Keen who won the female Yellow course and her teammates who took the second place team award on Yellow.
That’s it for the 2012-13 Suncoast Orienteering season. You can look forward to an extended Suncoast season next year with events running from November to April with some interesting new venues and novel formats.
Gord Hunter
Event Director
| Name | School | Time |
| Fryzel, Justin | Central | 25:59 |
| Tumelty, Eric | Central | 26:50 |
| Molina, Juan | Krop | 27:10 |
| Cabrera, Steve | Central | 27:16 |
| Price, Dallas | FMMA | 27:21 |
| Carmichael, Kyle | Central | 28:12 |
| Sizemore, J. | Dunedin | 31:45 |
| Griffin, Jacob | Winter Park | 31:57 |
| Keen, Amy | Charlotte | 32:58 |
| Izaguirre, Jose | FMMA | 34:49 |
| Taylor, Joshua | Charlotte | 35:13 |
| Blackburn, Zachary | Central | 35:38 |
| Pena, A | Dunedin | 36:44 |
| Dylan, Sands | Charlotte | 36:58 |
| Altieri, Anthony | Central | 37:19 |
| Khalikov, Arthur | Central | 38:03 |
| Reynolds, Jacob | FMMA | 38:57 |
| Brunson, Tyler | Ed White | 39:08 |
| Easton, Miles | Winter Park | 39:44 |
| Doncaster, S. | Dunedin | 40:07 |
| Bruck, M. | Dunedin | 41:22 |
| Bennett, Daniel | Sickles | 42:03 |
| Randolph, Shakira | FMMA | 42:29 |
| Mullins, Jacob | Winter Park | 44:54 |
| Oates, Tyler | Charlotte | 46:37 |
| Ferrier, Christopher | Ed White | 47:05 |
| Jenkins, Bailey | Dunedin | 47:08 |
| McMichael, Devon | Ed White | 48:50 |
| Bennett, Andrew | Charlotte | 49:22 |
| Baker, Jajuan | FMMA | 49:23 |
| Castiglione, Sal | Central | 50:05 |
| Millard, Robert | Charlotte | 50:46 |
| Thomason, Michael | Winter Park | 50:49 |
| Rosche, P. | Dunedin | 51:47 |
| Van Waganer, Audrey | Central | 52:19 |
| Forshee, Jacques | Ed White | 54:48 |
| O'Brien, Callie | Dunedin | 55:33 |
| Setzer, A. | Dunedin | 56:25 |
| Gregory, Chris | Central | 1:00:57 |
| Dickens, Caleb | FMMA | 1:03:52 |
| Barbee, Jenna | Central | 1:04:41 |
| Frank, T. | Dunedin | 1:07:34 |
| McComiskey, Ben | Charlotte | 1:09:01 |
| Montero, Troy | Central | 1:17:16 |
| Kim, Chandra | Ed White | 1:17:54 |
| Ventura, Francis | Krop | 1:18:47 |
| Winston, Savion | FMMA | 1:23:45 |
| Sabastian, Schlier | [Germany] | 1:23:54 |
| Caranci, Marie | Winter Park | 1:25:46 |
| Coleman, Stephanie | Winter Park | 1:26:52 |
| Ferrell, Justin | Sickles | 1:28:55 |
| Boyce, Daniel | Sickles | 1:31:51 |
| Farrior, Teylar | FMMA | 1:34:09 |
| Pryor, Nicolas | Krop | 1:38:28 |
| McMullen, Hellen | Charlotte | 1:41:29 |
| Shamsur, Genadiy | Krop | 1:42:01 |
| Kluge, Felicia | Dunedin | 1:44:19 |
| Pena, Eric | Ed White | DNF |
| Preston, Samantha | Winter Park | DNF |
| Newman, Kali | Ed White | DNF |
| Berden, Anthony | Sickles | DNF |
| Name | School | Time |
| Langer, Jared | Central | 46:56 |
| Ricci, George | Central | 50:30 |
| Nissen, Joshua | Ed White | 52:56 |
| Franklin, Austin | FMMA | 53:26 |
| Brown, Tyler | Krop | 54:52 |
| McCullough, Chris | Central | 55:31 |
| Carter, Grant | Winter Park | 56:06 |
| Henderson, Shantelle | FMMA | 58:25 |
| Martinez, Eric | Central | 58:28 |
| Carlton, Kelsey | Dunedin | 59:36 |
| Kozlow, Terry | Central | 59:21 |
| Hernandez, Mark | Krop | 1:00:06 |
| Smallwood, Nick | Central | 1:02:18 |
| Brown, J | Dunedin | 1:07:22 |
| Spiva, Thomas | FMMA | 1:08:11 |
| Pena, J. | Dunedin | 1:09:55 |
| Keller, Thoedore | Winter Park | 1:13:51 |
| Meier, A | Dunedin | 1:14:32 |
| Surratt, N. | Dunedin | 1:17:06 |
| Figueroa, Sebastian | Robinson | 1:18:09 |
| Bautista, Manuel | Krop | 1:23:55 |
| LaVine, Daniel | Dixie Hollins | 1:25:32 |
| Kuhlman, Heather | - | 1:39:04 |
| Boucard, John | Ed White | 1:44:14 |
| ? | Dixie Hollins | 1:52:34 |
| Fryar, Emma | Winter Park | 1:54:45 |
| Wallace, Emily | Winter Park | 1:59:35 |
| Diaz, Tommy | Sickles | 2:00:55 |
| Acuff-Passi, Kaija | - | 2:01:21 |
| Karabiyik, Ibi | Robinson | 2:03:11 |
| Karabiyik, Ugur | Robinson | 2:09:46 |
| Greene, Daniel | Robinson | 2:13:08 |
| Berthiaume, Megan | Sickles | 2:32:33 |
| Cross, Arimis | Sickles | 2:35:52 |
| Cruz, Ronald | Ed White | DNF |
| Black, Ben | Dixie Hollins | DNF |
| Palmer, Robert | Ed White | DNF |
| Moses, Mitchell | Central IND | DNF |
| Stern, Allen | Krop | DNF |
| Hardman, Molly | - | DNF |
| Girlzgo | - | DNF |
| Name | School | Time |
| Stabler, John | FMMA | 43:47 |
| Keels, Nathan | FMMA | 47:23 |
| Brown, Kenny | Central | 53:54 |
| Orner, Ben | Central | 59:08 |
| Donelson, Conner | Winter Park | 59:30 |
| Brown, Michael | Central | 1:01:12 |
| Rogers, R | Dunedin | 1:01:21 |
| Roan, T | Dunedin | 1:01:26 |
| Ordonez, Mitchell | Krop | 1:01:34 |
| Robinson, Andrew | Winter Park | 1:04:19 |
| Wu, Brian | Krop | 1:05:27 |
| Vasquez, Christopher | FMMA | 1:08:37 |
| Robinson, Gregory | Krop | 1:10:21 |
| Heiman, Charles | Winter Park | 1:11:05 |
| Sandulli, Kyle | - | 1:13:16 |
| Walker, Lynette | [Connecticut] | 1:14:57 |
| Ziolkoski, Barbara | FMMA | 1:17:19 |
| Natar, Mary | Dunedin | 1:23:55 |
| Guttormson, Richard | [Canada] | 1:25:25 |
| Ludwig, Joe | Central | 1:27:37 |
| Guttormson, Lorna | [Canada] | 1:28:06 |
| Martinez, Juan | Krop | 1:34:05 |
| McKenney, Aaron | Sickles | 1:46:01 |
| Cochrane, Shane | Dixie Hollins | 1:48:11 |
| Acuff, Tracy | - | DQ |
| Carwile, Matthew | Sickles | DNF |
| Stephens, Zach | Winter Park | DNF |
| Name | Club | Time |
| Bob Putnam | FLO | 1:08:24 |
| Kris Mante | FLO | 1:54:26 |
| Mike Warburton | FLO | 1:55:00 |
| George Walker | WCOC | DQ |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |