Training Log Archive: barb

The 85 7th grade students formed groups of 14 and teams of 3 to play a time-limited Poison Score-O.
After that, they visited five skills stations (map reading, racing, compass, maze-O, memory-O).
Friday they will do a team orienteering race at Fresh Pond.

Each section (Poison Score-O and Skills Stations) was worth 15 points for a total possible of 30.

5 out of 30 teams achieved a perfect score.

8 teams achieved a perfect score on the Poison Score-O.
13 out of 30 teams punched no poison controls (perfect map-reading).
12 out of 30 teams punched at all 15 non-poison controls.

10 teams completed all five skills stations.
22 teams out of 30 passed four of the five skills stations.

The winning group was Snakes, with 160 points.
Ducks were second with 155.
Frogs were third with 153.
Squirrel and Turtle tied at 134.

Videos shown to kids:
VIDEO 1 (“More than Just Running”)
VIDEO 2: Information about today's orienteering exercises.

C • Video 1

Yesterday we had two important programs.

In the morning, we brought the Morse 5th grade to the woods for the annual field trip.

In the afternoon, we ran the first interscholastic orienteering championships for Cambridge middle schools. There were 24 kids racing from four schools. They outnumbered the staff (8 Nav Games staff, 4 high school kids, Ed, two PE teachers, two coaches, 1 photographer). So that's good... Having so many of us there made everything easy. Having Ed there was amazing. The kids got to run with SI Air.

Photos

It was awesome.

Update: draft writeup below.

24 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.

Cambridge Street Upper School teams finished first and second, while the third place team was from Vassal Lane Upper School. Top individual results were posted by Tye Moore (PAUS) and Caleb Jaffe (CSUS). Second and third place runners included Emmie Knippen (CSUS), Ruri Duffy (CSUS), Nick Peters (VLUS), and Sasha Ray (CSUS).

Cambridge Sports Union (CSU) provided the specially made orienteering map of Danehy Park. Ed Despard of CSU 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 younger 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 everyone one had. It was so cool watching all of them run off with such confidence and skill. I can’t wait to see the event next year and to see how everyone progressed.”

The middle school intermural 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 coaches were supplied by Navigation Games staff, including orienteers from Brazil and the Czech Republic, as well as several former members of the United States Junior National Orienteering Team.

6 hours of hosting a Secret Garden Tour today! Mary Jo came last week and this to help. It was great! Of course we had a garden-O, where the clue sheet was a sequence of 10 pictures of vegetables and fruit, and you had to punch at the plant that bears that food.

Killer Goose Loop
Aka Vilppu & Keegan's course from last night.
I went running, people!
Don't know how long I was out there so I took Vilppu's time and doubled it.