Summerville High School Orienteering Team competed in the Navy JROTC National Orienteering Championship Invitational at Camp Rutledge Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, Ga. on Feb. 14, 2010. Orienteering is a sport that involves land navigation over unfamiliar terrain with a map and compass. The object is to run a series of points shown on a map, called check points, choosing routes, both on and off established trails that will allow the competitor to find all the points and get back to the finish line in the shortest amount of elapsed time.
Summerville NJROTC was one of four schools out of 65 in area six (South Carolina and North Carolina) to be invited to the Nationals. Only 24 schools of 629 nationwide were invited to the National Orienteering Meet. This year’s Nationals consisted of more than 300 cadets from 24 schools across the United States. Master Chief Carson Burgess, who coaches the Orienteering Team, said he had a “young team with predominately composed of Freshman and Sophomores.” He further stated he was “pleased with the leadership of the two seniors on the team Cadets Jeffery Haynes and Daniel Mizell.” The team finished 11th overall and Cadet Joe Bordiuk took seventh place overall on the Orange Course.  The team had their last competition of the year in North Charleston on Feb. 27 and look forward to competing in the Nationals again next year.