The Florida State JROTC Orienteering Rankings have now been around for eleven years.
As usual, this year, there are more stories than probably can be told but here goes.
An Example of Growth: In 2013-14, the first year of the Rankings, there were 16 cadets who competed in any of the Advanced Female races all year. This year there were more than twice that many in the State Championships Advanced Female race alone. Seventy-nine names are recorded in the Rankings for this year.
1,677 names of Florida cadets are recorded in this year’s JROTC Rankings. They competed in at least one of 23 events of which three were out-of-state events. The average number of events per team was about three, although the top teams generally had seven or more events to their credit. As they say, “You can’t earn points if you are not there to compete.”
An Example of Competitiveness: There are six categories for the Rankings – Advanced Male and Female, Intermediate Male and Female, and Novice Male and Female. Right to the final the question of who would end up as the Rankings Champion was reasonably up for grabs in four of the six categories and even in the other two a serious stumble by the leaders could have “upset the apple cart.”
An Example of New Teams Rising: Five of the six Rankings Titles were won by cadets from schools that until this year had never won a Rankings title, never in ten previous years. Even perennial strong Gaither had never won in the Rankings. This year they seemed to have put the “pedal to the metal” as Jackson Cardona and Nadia Fuentes of Gaither won the Advanced Male and Female titles.
Abraham Zerpa in Male Intermediate won Boca Raton’s second Rankings title, The first coming in 2016 from Advanced Female, Alicia Castenado. Sydney Bowers of Lemon Bay took the Female Intermediate Rankings title.
In the ‘Watch This Team in the Future’ category North Port cadets Ethan Farnham and Alexas Floyd won, respectively, the Novice Male and Female Ranking titles.
Three of the Rankings champions won medals at the State Orienteering championships while the other three missed ‘podium finishes’ by between five seconds and two minutes. OH! That’s close!
See the 2023-24 Individual Rankings here: https://rb.gy/o12u9t
The updated team Rankings will be following.
The Rankings for the 2024-25 year will start with the May 11th event at Florida Agricultural Museum.
· Hint #1: Be there to give your team a head start on the 2024-2025 Rankings
· Hint #2: Enter your cadets on the course you want them to be running next year so that is where their Ranking Points will go.
Get Your Compass and Our Map, and Let’s Go!
Gord Hunter
Suncoast Orienteering