Major Championships Near Home

This year the "Main Events" are in the Northeast. First the North American Orienteering Championships will be held in Harriman State Park, in the Hudson Highlands just below West Point.

Simply put, this is always a fine event, and we can expect a major effort by our Canadian neighbors to break the long running string of the host country always winning the Continental Title. Having just returned from the Canadian Championships at Fundy National Park in New Brunswick, I can tell you that the Way-Up North Orienteers (WUNO, not UNO) are more than ready to knock us off. We pretty much had our clocks cleaned in quite a lot of categories. But you know where we still excel? In the younger and mid-life-crisis categories. And for the Continental title, all categories count, not just the Elites. So think about making this your one big trip in the Fall, and contribute your efforts towards putting the US back on top. Plus, the lower Hudson Valley is beautiful at the end of October (a bit past peak foliage colors, but very colorful and OPEN woods for running). As the Schedule shows, there are some mid-week events after the North Americans, of which one is also quite close by, in Connecticut. If you can manage a day off from work and/or school, this should be another high class event.

But after all that, the big enchilada comes along with the US Championships at the start of November (my favorite month; of course, besides great O-ing it happens to include my birthday, along with two national holidays, and one more for NY State workers). The North Americans will draw a lot of Canadians down, but the US Champs will draw even more folks from the Mid-West and West Coast. It's a little further down to the Delaware Valley than it is to the Hudson Valley, but it's still easily doable after work Friday evening (if not very early Saturday morning). I'm particularly partial to this setup because my greatest orienteering success was finishing "in the money" in 3rd at the US Champs held by DVOA in 1993. I've finished 2nd in both the US Short-O and US Long-O since then, but never done better than 4th in the true US Champs again. So come on down, and help EMPO put some more numbers up on the leader board.

EMPO Relay Teams Move On Up

With the US Relay Championships being held by an adjacent Club, members of the EMPO Relay Team figured the Club could get two full squads to the race this year. The US Relays these days always feature a format which requires some broader participation than simply the best four runners from a Club, with points being granted for older, younger, and female team members. After much calculation and juggling, EMPO managed to come up with the two teams, one "4 Point" (mostly prime age males) and one "8 Point" (more, uh, "politically correct" or "diverse", or perhaps mostly just more old). The lineups weren't completely settled until the morning of the race, and since we actually had nine members there, while each team required four, one had to hook up with another mixed team. But it all worked out, and the two EMPO teams did pretty well. Our "Elite" Team had the Club's highest finish ever, coming in a strong 6th (US) in a total field of 22; while the our "Diverse" Team managed a respectable 17th in a field of 33. Two recent additions to the EMPO Elites, Laszlo Kolyvek and Grant Staats, turned in fine performances, while the Tryson and Hawkes-Teeter regulars were able to hold their own.

All in all, it was a fun experience for everyone. One important sidelight was that the UNO club (Up North Orienteers, centered in Southern New Hampshire) managed to get together eleven teams (that's forty-four people!) by recruiting, paying entry fees, and generally pushing the experience of getting to an 'A' Meet. Depending upon where the Relay Champs are held in the next year or two, if they aren't too far away, EMPO will consider doing something similar. Once you get to a National level event, you'll be hooked, and love every minute of it!

And they're off! Greg Tryson of EMPO's "Diverse" Team is near the front of the field, keeping just ahead of the big white dog. (And which team was the dog on again?) Laszlo Kolyvek of the EMPO "Elite" Team is hidden in this shot, but he's quite visible on the cover of the June/July issue of Orienteering North America.

US Relay Action -- the Leg 3 to 4 exchanges for EMPO's Diverse and Elite Teams: Janet tags Phil, and Glen slaps Grant.

Grant Staats finishes the anchor leg for the EMPO Elites

The EMPO Elite Relay Team, prior to the start of the race. From left: Laszlo Kolyvek, Marty Hawkes-Teeter, Grant Staats, Glen Tryson. The first digits of their bib numbers show which leg they ran.

The EMPO Diverse Team: Phil Hawkes-Teeter, Janet Tryson, Susan Hawkes-Teeter, Greg Tryson (with Agnes Hunyady in the background).