The LDHS NJROTC Orienteering Team went out to California to compete in the NJROTC Orienteering National Championships last weekend. They placed just outside the top 10 as a team and also had individual accomplishments.
Commander Anthony Linardi reported the team flew out early Thursday morning, February 12th. He said “They spent the rest of the day sightseeing in Los Angeles…. They visited Venice Beach and then went to the Griffith Park Observatory for a few great pictures of the Hollywood sign and the city of Los Angeles.” He added “On Friday morning the team was up early for registration and a model course exhibition where they had the opportunity to navigate through a part of the park to see the different kind of terrain that California has. The temperature was approximately 85 degrees every day. The remainder of the day was spent with the team resting at the hotel and enjoying some time at the pool.
The competition started on Saturday with a full course for all competitors. Saturday was a rough day for the team as some of our best competitors could not figure out the very technically difficult terrain. However there were some big surprises. Junior Tyler Burnette who is in his first full year of orienteering had a very good run time on the JV/Orange course. Senior Daniel Banks also had a good run time on Saturday. Freshman Ben Carter also stepped up and ran well on the Orange Course. Juniors, Austin Schafer and Juan Vasquez did their part by running well and getting solid run times on the Varsity/Green course.
After getting over a little disappointment, the team settled down for the night ready to pick up the pace on Sunday. The team did really well on Sunday, but had a lot of ground to make up. Almost the entire team improved their times on Sunday. Tyler Burnette finished strong and placed 34th out of approximately 117 competitors placing himself in the top third in the country! Senior Daniel Banks also finished strong and took both overall. Juniors Austin Schafer and Juan Vasquez really established themselves as two of the top Orienteers in the nation taking 27th and 29th respectively out of 88 competitors. These two also took their place in the top one third in the nation.”
Commander Linardi said the Laurens High NJROTC Orienteering Team 14th place overall out of 25 teams that competed at the event, closely missing being in the top 10.