Below you can find links to the Overall 2017 NAV-X Series Standings.  Please e-mail us at info@navxchallenge.org with any questions or corrections.

Diablo Foothills was the 6th and final Nav-X Challenge event for 2017.  Attendance was great; 99 people showed up to trek in, over and through Diablo Foothills Regional Park and Shell Ridge Open Space in Walnut Creek.  Two races were offered: 4 hours and 2 hours.  The very nice map was 1:10,000 with 4.9m contours, created in 2011 by BAOC’s Matej Sebo and field checked in 2014 by BAOC’s Bob Cooley.   The parks are very steep, so it was a challenge to figure out the best route, especially in the areas nearest the start and finish.  It was interesting to hear the variety of route choices being discussed afterwards, along with all the pros and cons and issues that each competitor faced.   Feedback was generally great as people seemed to enjoy the day. 

We had some very impressive performances in all of the categories; congratulations to everyone who raced well, or had fun! Full results for Diablo Foothills can be found here:

Some 4-hour highlights:  Dennis Wilkinson and Mats Jansson both cleared the course in under 4 hours, receiving 2680 points and a time bonus.  When we were course setting, we were convinced that it would be unlikely that any good runner would be able to clear the course.  So this means that Dennis and Mats are not just good – they must be great!  Behind Dennis in the Open Men/Mixed division were Lubo Sebo with 2490 and Andrew Peterson with 2310 points.  

Our top Open woman runner was Marcy Beard, who gathered 2110 points on the 4-hour course, and she was followed by Jitka Hiscox on 1570, and the team of Michelle Condit and Jahanna Schleret on 930 points.  

Behind Mats in the Masters Men/Mixed division were Greg Favor with 2150 and Theo Verhoven with 1850. 

The top Masters woman runner was Penny DeMoss, who gathered 1960 points while hampered by an injury, followed by the indomitable Nancy Lindaman on 330!!

Highlights of the 2-hour course:  Bill Cusworth won the course and the Masters Men/Mixed division with 1620 points.  This is a very impressive result, especially if we play math games and double the points to compare with the 4-hour division, which says that Bill would have given both Dennis and Mats a run for their money!  Tapio Karras pulled off a strong second in the division with 1380 points despite only having 2 minutes in which to read his map and plan his route before the start!  Fyodor Konkov got 1320 points, and served more notice that he is getting faster and faster!

Siargey Pisarchyk, all the way from Russia!!!!, won the Open Male/Mixed Division with 1510 points – a great effort!  He was followed by Jeffrey Goodwin with 1260, and the team of Francois Leonard and Wayne Staats also on 1260 points, but 5 minutes behind.  
Our first place Open Woman was Erica Reed on 1030, followed by Mary Kate Maltzan on 780 and Megan Phillips also on 780 just 1 second behind!

In the Masters Women’s division, Sheila Cotter, Olga Kraght and Linda Morris with 730, 630 and 470 points respectively.  
The top Junior competitor was 14-year-old Daniel Sebo, who gathered 1140 points, and he’s gonna be great!!
Vladimir Gusiatnikov and Beatrice Schreibstein won the Family division with 430 points.  Beatrice exposed Vladimir to some awesome uphill running… look out, ladies!!  Second family was Nick, Laura, James and Amelia Williamson with 280 points, and they were chased by Shahar and Efrat Noy also with 280 points but 1 second behind!

Here are our awesome volunteers, THANK YOU;  I hope I didn’t forget anyone:

• Gavin Wyatt-Mair - Maps, Course Setting, Event Setup, Start/Finish, Results, Teardown, Permits/Rangers
• Bob Cooley - Maps
• Vicki Woolworth - Maps, Course Setting,  Event Setup, Teardown, Control Pickup, Food
• Jay Hann - Maps, Course Setting, Epunch, Event Setup, Start/Finish, Results, Teardown
• Mats Jansson - Event Setup, Results, Teardown, Website, Food
• Bill Cusworth - Registration, Epunch, Event Setup, Teardown, Control Pickup
• Andrew Peterson - Control Pickup, Website
• Gary Carpenter - Event Setup
• Peter Graube -  Control Pickup
• Jitka Hiscox -  Control Pickup
• Steve Haas -  Control Pickup
• Joe Maffei -  Control Pickup
• Eric Robinson -  Control Pickup
• Ginny LaForme -  Control Pickup
• Tim Kuenster -  Control Pickup
• Rex Winterbottom - Course Setting, Permits/Rangers

A special word of concern for Rex Winterbottom, who was slated to be course setter but was injured and couldn’t finish the job; we hope Rex has recovered and is ok again!!  Kudos to Jay, Vicki and Gavin who stepped up to do the course setting at the last minute and manned the event center.  

We are planning another series of events for 2018.  Stay tuned!  And remember, the World Championships are coming up in 2020 near Lake Tahoe, so it is already time to train, train, train and practice, practice, practice!!!

Gavin Wyatt-Mair (meet director) & The NAV-X Team

79 people showed up for map trekking on a beautiful early fall day at Joseph Grant County Park east of San Jose. Whether people chose to race for 3 hours, 5 hours, or take on the full 16 hour Quad Trek, they chose from a variety of possibilities on an excellent map of this large park. Some people opted to head to the extreme ends of the map for the higher point value controls, while others stayed closer to the start/finish; the fastest seemed to visit controls both near and far. Many people got out to the far east, west and (in the 16-hour event) north sections of the map, which are rather remote and rarely used for orienteering. Feedback was generally great as people seemed to enjoyed the day and, for those in the Quad Trek, the pleasantly cool night. 

We had some very impressive performances in all of the categories; congratulations to everyone who raced well, or had fun! Full results for Joe Grant can be found below, and the Series Standings found on our Results page have been updated.

I'd like to highlight the effort put forth by those who ran the full Quad Trek. As the sun rose Sunday morning, these athletes were still out there persevering on a tough course in physical terrain. We should all be impressed by all of them. In alphabetical order by first name, this was: Adam Smithline, Bud Laird, Derek Maclean, Eric Robinson, Ginny Laforme, Jitka Hiscox, Joel Olson, John Straigis, Kathy Giori, Kyle Halliday, Mats Jansson, Nick Giori, Peter Graube, Roy Malone, Scott Moore, Tom Proulx, and Vicki Woolworth. Special kudos to Roy Malone, your overall winner, getting over 80% of the possible points! Also, honorable mention to Greg Favor and Kim van Berkel, who both made it almost to the end. Greg got injured and Kim fell sick before the last leg. 

I am trying to spread my passion for long distance orienteering/map trekking, known internationally as rogaining, and this event was meant to be an introduction to the experience of overnight racing. While the Quad Trek format allows for occasional rests, make no mistake: any overnight map trek is a very challenging event. Physically, you must keep going for a long time through difficult terrain; we know better than anyone how much tougher it is to move off trail than on. But beyond that, you must also keep mentally focused enough to find the controls, deal with disappointments and aches, and maybe most importantly ignore that little voice telling you it's 3 AM and you've done enough. 

If you missed it this year and are curious to test your limits, we hope to offer another long event next year. Or check out rogaining online, the International Rogaining Federation, or the North American events on the calendar at:

https://orienteeringusa.org/orienteers/rogaines/events

In 2020 we are hosting the World Rogaining Championships near Lake Tahoe, an event which is accessible for people of any experience level, so that's something to look forward to as well.

Special thanks to Jay Hann for timing services, and to Jay and Bill Cusworth for providing event support all night. Mats Jansson and Vicki Woolworth also went above and beyond, staying after their Quad Trek to help clean up. Finally, thank you to Santa Clara County Parks and ranger Will Bick for their help with our event.

Our next and final event of the 2016 season, is a 2- and 4-hour Map Trek at Shell Ridge/Mt. Diablo near Walnut Creek on Sunday, November 12. Pick up series points to improve your final standing! Hope to see you out there!

Dennis Wilkinson & The NAV-X Team

Aaaah!  Tahoe in the early fall - does it get any better?  103 intrepid souls agreed as they came together at Little Truckee Summit to feast on the 68 checkpoints of the 4th event in the 2017 NAV-X Challenge Series.  This was the 2nd day of the “Tahoe Nav Sports Weekend”, with many map trekkers taking advantage of excellent Middle distance orienteering courses on Saturday as hosted by Truckee Orienteering.  Huge thanks go out to our friends from Truckee Orienteering who made the weekend happen - Greg Walker, Anna Vogele and Carol Walker.

We were blessed with excellent weather, and were not affected by any quick afternoon thunderstorms that are so common this time of year.  While the 3 hr course was a fairly typical map trek, the 6 hr course made for some interesting strategic choices.  Stay on Loop 1 as long as possible, or siphon off high pointers on both loops?  It was evident that the choice wasn’t easy, and that making it back on time would be tricky for some.  Feedback on the course and the event was overwhelmingly positive, even though the awards ceremonies got a bit delayed due to the challenge in making the software work for the two loop format.  We pledge to solve this for the upcoming event at Joe Grant - thanks for everyone’s patience.

A shout-out to three incredible talented Juniors who all made the Top 5 list overall:  Daniel Sebo on the 3 hr course and sisters Katie and Sarah Petersen on the 6 hr course - well done!

For those of you who competed on Saturday at the Truckee Orienteering event, results can be followed at the following link:

Results Highlights

Highest scores on the 3 hr course (complete results here): 
1820    Team Culberg
1570    Maria Schmiterlöw
1490    Daniel Sebo
1440    Tac Solo
1390    Rosenzweig family

Top five on the 6 hr course (complete results here): 
3800    Dennis Wilkinson
3070    Kyle Halliday
2800    Jonathan Owens
2660    Roy Malone
2450    Katie & Sarah Petersen

A few volunteer recognitions are in order.  Huge thanks to the following people (in no particular order) without whom this event would not have been possible:

Greg Walker - Course design and setting, ePunch support, control pickup, breakdown
Carol Walker - Control pickup
Anna Vogele - Control pickup
Bill & Heidi Cusworth - Registrations, check-in, event and Series results publishing, budgeting
Heidi Cusworth - Registrations, check-in, traffic watch
Rex Winterbottom - Traffic watch
Mats Jansson - Event director, setup, check-in, traffic watch, food table, control pickup
Vicki Woolworth - Setup, breakdown
Andrew Peterson - Website
Bob Cooley - Map printing

Jay Hann of Western Race Services provided ePunch and live results services.  Bay Area Orienteering Club allowed us to use their excellent map.  We also had great support from Jennifer Callahan, ranger with the Tahoe National Forest.

The NAV-X Team

NAV-X’s first experiment with hosting a pop-up restaurant in the Sierras was a success!  Our secret was to send all of our patrons out on 4 & 8h adventures into the Sierras to build up appetites.

After many days of monitoring and worrying about the Detwiler fire, we ended up having beautiful, if a little hot, conditions on race day.  Many of you pushed to your limits, but none of the 68 people who ventured onto the course were able to clear the 39 controls worth 2400 points.  But, many of you did find the game camera we left out on the course!  Check out our photo album on facebook (we had to sift through 6000 pictures to pull out these gems).  

Jay Hann of Western Race Services provided not only epunch and results services, but also was instrumental in bringing up all the equipment for us to prepare dinner. Some of you took advantage of bagels and coffee in the mornings, courtesy of WRS.

Glad to see you all out there, and we’re hoping for a similar turnout at the next event in Tahoe National Forest, near Little Truckee Summit on Sunday, Sept 10th.  It’s another opportunity to make a weekend out of it, as Truckee Orienteering will be hosting an orienteering event on Saturday.  We hope to see you there!!

Results Highlights

Highest scores on the 4 hr course: 
Rex Winterbottom (BAOC) - 860 points
Takashi Sugiyama (BAOC) - 850 points
Lori Huberman (BAOC) - 630 points
Joel Olson - 470 points

Top four on the 8 hr course: 
Dennis Wilkinson (BAOC) - 2,120 points
Mark Prior (SDO) - 1,900 points
Roy Malone (GCO) - 1,690 points
Eric Robinson (BAOC) - 1,480 points

We would like to thank the following volunteers: 
Bob Cooley (BAOC) - Map printing
Bill and Heidi Cusworth - Registration and E-mail Communication pre-event, Results, Series Results
Jay Hann (Western Race Services) - Welcome, ePunch, Results, Pop-Up Restaurant Services
Ginny Laforme - Setup, Food Prep, Beer Service, Control Pickup
Mats Jansson – Course Setting, Welcome, Equipment, Setup, Food Prep, Takedown and Control Pickup
Rex Winterbottom - Welcome, Setup, Takedown, Control Pickup
Vicki Woolworth - Setup, Takedown, Cleanup, Control Pickup
Andrew Peterson - Event Director, Setup, Food Prep, Takedown, Cleanup, Control Pickup, Website
Julia Peterson - Menu, Pre-Event Food Prep
Eric Robinson - Control Pickup
Jeff Lanam - Control Pickup
Steven Duke - Control Pickup
Theo Verhoeven - Control Pickup
Tim Kuenster - Control Pickup

There were three more volunteers for the control pickup but we failed to mark down their names - if that was you, let us know, and thank you!

FYI: The Detwiler Fire has grown a little to ~80,000acres, but is now 65% contained.  Many thanks to all of those CalFire and safety workers who protect our national resources we get to go play in!

Andrew Peterson
Event Director

Just under 100 runners enjoyed a sunny but cool day at Tamarancho Scout Reservation. The courses by Bill and Heidi Cusworth provided an interesting route choice puzzle for those at the upper end of the results table, while also providing many options and challenges for less experienced runners. A good time was had by all! Or at least all those I spoke with. 

Special mention to the Carson High School NJROTC who made the trek from Nevada! They did great and brought home quite a bit of chocolate for their podium finishes. Hope to see them at our next events!

This year's courses ventured to the far south of the park, which was not really mapped until our event. To use this area, Bill Cusworth did quite of bit of cartographic work and it was definitely worth it. I had never been to this area and really enjoyed it during pickup. More kudos to Bill.

As for the finishers, special mention to Mark Prior for his exceptional run in adult open 4 hour. We suspected someone could clear the course but did not anticipate such a fast time. Congrats also to Greg Khanlarov for a nice race to take the overall 2 hour, edging out stalwart Matej Sebo in time (they tied in points). Junior Daniel Sebo was only a little behind - watch out! Several other categories were highly competitive, and we had a number of nice results from runners on the rise. Good stuff!

Results went smoothly and hopefully people enjoyed the video boards that were updated as runners came in and downloaded - thanks to Jay and Western Race Services. Also special thanks to Peter Graube who stayed behind to help the Nav-X team pick up the controls. 

Our next event July 22 takes you back to the granite slabs and forever views of the Sierra Nevada! We'll provide 4 and 8 hour courses on the southern portion of the Dinkey Creek map, site of last year's North American 24 hour championship race. In case you didn't get there last year, the southern part of this map is a real jewel and not to be missed.  Please note that this event is tentative pending park permission.

Another upcoming race of note is our overnight event Sep. 30 - Oct. 1 at Joe Grant park in San Jose. This "quad-trek" (also known as a "regaine") is an awesome format and we are really excited to bring it to you! The race period is 24 hours, broken into four 6 hour blocks. In each block you run for either 3, 4 or 5 hours and rest for the balance at base camp. You'll be able to eat, nap, check you standing, chat with other runners, change out gear, etc at camp. More specific rules will be posted on the event website. 

This is a great chance to get out and try a 24 hour event, and solos are allowed. Of course, you can also sign up for just one or two blocks, and are welcome to camp with us whatever you choose to do. Save the date!

From the Nav-X team,
Dennis

Results Highlights

Highest scores on the 2 hr course:

• Greg Khanlarov - 1,320 points (beating out Matej on time, not points by only 2mins!)
• Matej Sebo (BAOC) - 1,320 points
• Daniel Sebo (BAOC) - 1,150 points
• Øystein Grøvlen (Other) - 1,110 points

Top four on the 4 hr course:

• Mark Prior (SDO) - 2,897 points
• Roy Malone (GCO) - 2,420 points
• Mats Jansson (GCO) - 2,330 points
• Kyle Halliday (BAOC) - 2,270 point

Top three in the Family division (2 hr):

• Team Keane (Mareese, David) - 700 points 
• Offwidth (Daniel, Polina Engovatov) - 670 points
• Yo Team (Dan, Noah, Kim Schaefer) - 310 points

We would like to thank the following volunteers:

• Bob Cooley (BAOC) - Map printing
• Bill and Heidi Cusworth - Course Designer, Registration, Setup, Results, Control Pickup
• Dennis Wilkinson - Event Director, Setup, Control Pickup
• Peter Graube - Control pickup
• Vicki Woolworth - Setup, Takedown
• Jay Hann (Western Race Services) - ePunch, shelter and results
• Mats Jansson – Registration, equipment, setup, takedown and control pickup
• Andrew Peterson - Web site, Registration, Control Pickup
• Thanks also go to the Tamarancho Park Staff, especially Park Ranger Bill Bradbury

What the hail! Sure, they forecasted showers, but it didn’t occur to me that it would be something other than nice soft rain. The 17 x 22 inch map was not only beautiful and detailed, but it also came in handy for protection from the elements.

1064 amazingly tough people ventured out into the wilds of Coyote Lake/Harvey Bear County Park in this weather to find the controls set by master course setter Lubomir Sebo. Would anyone find all 43 controls for 2500 points and still get back on time? Mark Prior came close, and it was great to see teams of all ages, including families, giving it their best shot. Check out the photo album on facebook.

Jay Hann of Western Race Services provided not only epunch and results services, but also set up heaters under a big canopy when the wet and cold adventurers returned. We are also grateful to the Bay Area Orienteering Club, our co-sponsor, for the use of their map, equipment and other support.

Glad to see you all out there, and we’re hoping for better weather at the next event, which is at Camp Tamarancho near Fairfax (North Bay) on April 23.  We hope to see you there!

Results Highlights

Highest scores on the 2 hr course:

• Tapio Karras (BAOC) - 1,220 points
• Takashi Sugiyama (BAOC) - 1050 points
• Paul Ort (BAOC) - 900 points
• Lori Huberman (BAOC) - 890 points

Top four on the 4 hr course:

• Mark Prior (SDO) - 2,270 points
• Roy Malone (GCO) - 1,940 points
• Charles Triponez (None) - 1,830 points
• Kim van Berkel (BAOC) - 1,680 points

This was also our first event with a Family division, and there was a real fight for the podium there.

Top three in the Family division (2 hr):

• De Vre family (Roosje, Tom, Jonas, Marie) - 610 points (slight time advantage)
• Laenens family (Inge, Bart, Komeel, Marthe) - 610 points
• Keane family (Mareese, David) - 570 points

Because we had such good family turnout, we are tweaking future courses a bit to make them even more suitable for family participation (a few more checkpoints closer by).  Tell your friends!

We would like to thank the following volunteers:

• Bob Cooley (BAOC) - Map printing
• Bill and Heidi Cusworth - Registration, results
• Peter Graube - Control pickup
• Jay Hann (Western Race Services) - ePunch, heaters, shelter and results
• Mats Jansson – Registration, equipment, setup, takedown and control pickup
• Marina Keating  (BAOC) - Insurance
• Andrew Peterson - Web site
• Lubomir Sebo – Course designer, control setter and control pick up
• Matej Sebo - Mapper, control setter
• Daniel Sebo - Setup, takedown, control pickup

Thanks also go to the Santa Clara County Parks, especially Ranger Ali Famalett

Vicki Woolworth - Event director