UTAS Intervarsity Team Sam Woolford and Xavier Scott
By the Tasmanian Team, Xavier Scott and Sam Woolford.
This year the legendary Samborghini and I competed in the NSW Rogaining Championships, which doubled as the Intervarsity Champs. We came 2nd in the Intervarsity and 7th overall. Less hills would have been preferable, and we went for the full 24 hours this time round.
Our chosen route was well planned and calculated to have high points per kilometre, if we were capable of doing it all. We covered the left side of the map with the initial daylight so that the steepest and slowest part of the map was done during the night. Those hills were huge and I have nightmares about them till this day. Arrived at the All-Night Café at around 2am. This was very difficult to leave, but supplied the necessary refuelling and rest needed to push on through the night until the expected energy burst of the rising sun. No real navigation mistakes were made on course, and we picked up some solid checkpoints early on. Samothy also yoinked a Water Dragon Lizard who was chill about it … until he wasn’t.
That said, not everything went perfectly. By the time we arrived at water station 2 and were having breakfast with other teams, we both agreed we needed to cut the upper loop we originally had planned short and ensure we could clean up the checkpoints towards the hash house. This again came to contention as our pace came to a crawl given my lack of strength from being punished by the endless hills and Sambos ‘trench foot’ starting to assault him as he had carried water in his socks from creek crossing dating back to the first hours of the event. Thus, we yet again had to cut out another loop and aim straight for the HH, acquiring any checkpoints that were in the vicinity of this line.
The Intervarsity Champs was won by the ANU (ACT), by a team with Sam’s brother. We suspect foul play as there’s no way he could’ve legitimately beaten us.
A huge thank you to the NAMSF for the funding support. Without it, the trip to NSW and competing would not have been possible. It was a fantastic experience to be part of the intervarsity champs.
Results are on line at https://rogaine-results.com/event/results/2025/nsw-championships/24hr, where you can also see the entrants’ routes. The event map can be viewed here.