Discussion: West Point: US A-meet

The United States Military Academy Orienteering Club will be holding its annual A-meet at West Point, NY on 28-29 April 2007. Besides what is available at the event website Event Website, there are a few points worth mentioning:

1. The summer barracks at Camp Buckner, normally available for cheap lodging, are scheduled for renovation/furniture upgrade during the A-meet time frame. As of now, we have been unsuccessful in getting any flexibility by the contractor in setting a few buildings aside for our lodging use.

2. We are looking for volunteers to "pre-run" the A-meet courses in the weeks (beginning the weekend of 31 Mar or 1 Apr 07) before the A-meet. In addition to the normal cadet course setting and cadet course vetting, we will use these pre-runs as a final check on the courses. If you will not be able to attend the A-meet, but you are interested in running the courses a few weeks prior, please contact Dr. Richard Hoff (who is organizing our pre-runs)at: mr8436 at usma dot edu.

3. Hudson Valley Orienteering is holding an A-meet (21-22 Apr) in Harriman State Park the weekend before the West Point meet. Since there may be some orienteers who come into the area for both meets and stay in the area during the intervening weekdays, we thought we would check if there is any interest in some mid-week training events on local maps. The USMA team will be running some normal practice events that week anyway (typically about 4:30 in the afternoon). If you are interested in possibly attending some USMA team practice courses that week (22-26 Apr), please let me know at: jonathan.campbell at usma dot edu.

Is anyone interested in sharing transport from Newark? The best flights for me arrive 7:44am Saturday, depart 3:45 or 4:45 or 9:30pm Sunday.

Accommodation also.

(Yeah, Rochester-West Point is too far for me to bother driving...)

Any chance you can get the Camp Natural Bridge barracks instead? Not that it matters that much to me; I'd sooner sleep in my car than in the barracks (and have done so), but a lot of people appreciate having the handy shower facilities.

To feet:
I am arriving at JFK at 7:22 AM Saturday and departing 6:40 PM Sunday. I think we could share a ride. Let me know.

As for accommodation, have not planed anything yet.

The opportunity still exists to "pre-run" USMAOC's courses for the A-meet at the end of April, if you will be unable to attend the actual meet.

Again, if you are interested in this, the contact info is a few posts above.

I am looking for a ride back from the event on Sunday afternoon to one of the New York airports. My flight is from JFK, but I could easily get a shuttle from LaGuardia or Newark if I get a ride to one of these airports.

Nikolay, find me or Valeriy Doverov - we will bring you in on Sunday. When is your flight?

Here are some details on the sprint Saturday afternoon --

West Point Sprint
Saturday afternoon, start from 2 to 4 pm, same place as last year (just NW of the main parking at Camp Buckner).
Part of the 2007 Sprint Series, 45 points to the winner (also as Team fundraiser).
2.2 km, 60 meters climb, 22 controls. Lots and lots of orienteering in a very short (and by West Point standards, very flat) course.
E-punching.
Map scale is 1:4,000.
Suggested footwear — Spikes not recommended, running shoes should be fine.
Terrain -- Some woods, open areas, a little pavement, a few stairs, a few fences to go over, under, through, or around, some buildings to go around or under. Swimming not required.
Registration — in advance with your entry for the A meet, or on the spot registration is fine too.
Organizers — Course setter - Peter Gagarin; OCAD wizardry – JJ Cote, E-punch guru – Valerie Meyer, West Point executive producer – Andrew Komm, Maitre D’s – Kris Beecroft and Samantha Saeger.
There will be some special awards (including some real Australian cash to the fastest runner going to JWOC).

Results from the sprint.

I see that Erin and Kristoffer tied. Did they run together or did they actually tie?

I'd like to know who can possibly tie the Schirminator short of the Sheriff himself.

Well, in this case it was no one... wrong Erin ;-)

Erin and Kristoffer ran separately, and Erin would have beat him if she'd looked beforehand to see where the finish punch was (on the diving board).

Here's the map. Not drawn to sprint standards. You could go under various parts of various buildings, just had to keep your eyes open.

An excellent run by Erin. And by Hillary.

That is an awesome course. Well done PG.

And the Split times, WinSplits Online.

Kristoffer had a 47 second headstart on Erin.

How's that?

1 control per 100m is my favorite ratio.

We were eyeballing the start intervals - once the one person cleared the buildings, the next person could go...real scientific.

Photos posted now, (there's two pages) mostly from the sprint.

Great photos, especially of the "wall" and the fence at the top of it, all part of the "finish chute." Best time for up the wall, through/over the fence, and out to the finish punch on the diving board was a very impressive 9 seconds. And it provided some fine entertainment to a good crowd of spectators.