2018 Middle School Orienteering Championships

2018 Middle School Orienteering Championships
Posted on 06/12/2018
Four schools participated in the relay format navigation races
Orienteering24 students from four middle schools in Cambridge competed in the 2018 Middle School Orienteering Championships. The races were held on June 5th at Danehy Park. The format was a four-leg relay, with either two or three athletes on each relay team. Each leg had nine checkpoints and was approximately 900 meters point-to-point. Orienteering is a map navigation race; therefore, the actual course length depended on the route chosen by each runner. Participating schools were Cambridge Street Upper School (CSUS), Amigos, Vassal Lane Upper School (VLUS), and Putnam Avenue Upper School (PAUS).

OrienteeringCambridge Street Upper School teams finished first (Sam G and Bruce R) and second (Derek P and Caleb J), while the third place team was from Vassal Lane Upper School (Zephyr N, Nick P and Hanna C). Top individual results were posted by Tye M (PAUS) and Caleb J (CSUS). Second and third place runners included Emmie K (CSUS), Ruri D (CSUS), Nick P (VLUS), and Sasha R (CSUS).

Cambridge Sports Union provided the specially made orienteering map of Danehy Park. Ed Despard of Cambridge Sports Union donated his time and equipment for the electronic timing and results. Four of the CRLS athletes who won the USA Junior Nationals in April were on hand to help run the event: Keegan Harkavy, Anaka Landrigan, Priya Landrigan and Vilppu Viinikainen. Anaka reported, “The middle school orienteering championships allowed the kids to compete against other teams in a friendly race. They cheered for every team and were able to have fun and engage in the courses even if it was raining at first. They experienced true orienteering: run no matter the conditions!” Keegan said, “I was super impressed by the level of skill the athletes had. It was so cool watching all of them run off with such confidence. I can’t wait to see the event next year and to see how everyone progressed.”

The middle school intramural teams trained every week leading up to the races. Many of the students also participated in the four-week introduction to orienteering offered after school in the fall. The Cambridge Street and Vassal Lane Upper School teams were coached by Rachel Schwartz and Cristian Guzman, respectively. Both are pursuing a Masters degree in Sport Psychology at Boston University. Additional coaching was supplied by Navigation Games (a Cambridge non-profit promoting the sport), including visiting orienteers from Spain, Brazil and the Czech Republic, as well as several former members of the United States Junior National Orienteering Team.

Winners

Results
Team Results
First place: Sam G and Bruce R from CSUS.
Second place: Derek P and Caleb J from CSUS.
Third place: Zephyr N, Nick P and Hannah C from VLUS.

Individual Results
Top individuals on Course B: Tye M (1st, PAUS, 8th grade), Emmie K (2nd, CSUS, 8th grade), and Ruri D (3rd, CSUS, 7th grade)
Top individuals on Course A: Nick P (2nd, VLUS, 6th grade), Caleb J (1st, CSUS, 7th grade), and Sasha H (3rd, CSUS, 7th grade)

List of all competitors
VLUS: Zephyr N, Nick P, Hannah C
CSUS: Jacob B, Ben D, Sam L, Hillawe A, Caleb C, Sasha H, Ruri D, Derek P, Caleb J, Selma U, Emmie K, Sam G, Bruce R
Amigos: Emily K, Christina K, Tessa D, Safia S, Sebastian P
PAUS: Tye M, Nathaniel S, Sankara N

Photos by: Tomáš Kamaryt and David Yee.
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