OCR Text |
Show S' h ri V Vr- y :l st .5 ' i i ! If 4 fn - s II v 6 V. vJ t . . . , ; . 2 5 . o ! C A':. a i Wally Chambers was the first relay team member to round the five kilometer track and he topped it off with a dramatic lunge to tag partner Terry Porter. Oldest and youngest teams have their day in nordic relay Ted Sundquist s handicap scoring system appears to be doing its job. The winners of last Sunday's three-man relay race were the oldest and youngest teams, teams. Sundquist's system is based on a racer's sex and age computed against a prime age derived from years of research (three seasons, to be more precise ) . The upshot is that those 25-year-olds who win every race get docked time for being in their supposed racing prime, thereby letting let-ting the youngsters and veterans have a shot at the prizes. So guess who usually wins the White Pine Relays? Fifty-five-year-old Sundquist and his venerable teammates team-mates Carol Louder (35 years old) and Bob Woody (58 years old). Actually, Sundquist's system backfired this weekend when a hotshot team of twelve -year-olds from Pinedale, Wyoming used their handicap and their race experience to steal first place. Sundquist et. al. had to settle for second behind Travis and Trevor Pfaff and Brandon Elliot. Third place went to local racers Tom Noaker, Marit Glenne and Rich Groth who earned their place more by the sweat of their brows than by relying on handicaps. The fastest unadjusted lap time around the five-kilometer five-kilometer course was set by Wally Chambers who finished in 14.52 minutes. With handicaps, his team of Terry Porter, Rusty Scott and himself finished ninth. Fourth place in the team standings went to another veteran team of Jim Straley, Lee Straley and Andy Pfaff. Fifth went to Steven and Megan Holcomb and Ntala Skinner. And struggling against an almost insurmountable insur-mountable handicap, Kathy and Ken McCarthy and Christoph Schork (ages 25, 27 and 32) were shuttled into sixth place. |