March 20, 2016 - Pleasanton, Calif. –
Eight military athletes competed in the 2016 U.S.
Individual Orienteering Championship in Pleasanton, CA from 18-21 March.
In the women’s elite competition, Army 1st Lt. Hannah
Culberg won Gold in the Middle and the Long distance competitions, and Silver
in the sprint. Culberg’s dominating performance on the 8.3 km Long was 14
minutes ahead of the next female competitor.
Army Lt. Col. Victoria Campbell took Bronze in the Middle
and the Long, missing a third medal in the sprint by 13 seconds.
Air Force Lt. Col. Maiya Anderson was the F40+ Gold medalist for the sprint and Silver medalist for the Middle and Long.
On the men’s side, Army Capt. Jordan Laughlin won Silver
in the sprint and Bronze in both Middle and Long distance races.
Other notable performances included Army Capt. Kevin
Culberg (5th American on the Middle and the Long), Army Lt. Col. Jonathan
Campbell (8th American on the Middle), Air Force 1st Lt. Zach Hoeffner (12th
American on the Middle and the Sprint) and Army 1st Lt. Ted Fong (8th American
on the Sprint).
The terrain for Friday’s Middle distance courses at
Morgan Territory Regional Preserve featured nuanced hilltops with intricate
rock features, runnable forest and open fields, and patches of thicker
vegetation. Courses involved multiple shorter legs with numerous direction
changes and were unforgiving of mistakes.
Winning course times were around 28-30 minutes for the
elite classes. Saturday’s Long was on the same map, but included longer legs
that emphasized route choice and maintaining map contact to find controls in
some of the more complex terrain.
Winning times were about 75-85 minutes for the elite
classes. Sunday’s sprint was a fast-paced, direction-changing scramble across
Mills College, featuring opportunities to get trapped by un-crossable walls,
poorly-planned bridge crossings, strange building shapes, or out of bounds
areas.
Maps and competitor route choices are available at http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi
Complete results are available at http://baoc.org/wiki/Results/2016/Morgan_Territory