Your reflections on the sprint last night captured my experiences exactly.
A big 'Bravo!' to Katie for putting on her first meet! It's easy to pick on little things about a course, but the races last night were a lot of fun and she did a great job of putting it together.
Agreed! Fun event. Course 1 could have been made a little more interesting by moving 7 into the woods a bit (I know Katie considered this, but thickness of vegetation was also a consideration), and leaving out #8 (forcing more navigation on 7 to 9). But those are the things you learn with more experience.