Month: February 2021

Puzzle Friday: California Orienteering Festival

Happy Friday everyone! There are only 157 training days left until the California Orienteering Festival which includes the North American Orienteering Championships (NAOC) and the World Rogaining Championships (WRC). This multi-week 10-stage event, which was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic, is scheduled for August 2-15, 2021.

Because the event includes NAOC & WRC a lot depends upon the status of international travel as we slowly emerge from the past 12 months of pandemic related travel restrictions. The organizers will make a major decision on the event status sometime in April. If you registered for the event in 2020 and did not request a refund, then your registration is all set. Around 600 people are currently registered.

If you have not yet registered this is a reminder that regular pricing ends on Monday, March 1st and late fees kick in starting Tuesday. Due to the uncertainty imposed by the pandemic, the organizers have instituted very robust refund policies which can be seen at the bottom of the pricing page.

So kick start your day-dreaming about racing in the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe this August and enjoy this weeks puzzle! See you in Tahoe!

2021 Junior Team Announced

Orienteering USA’s Junior Team Executive Steering Committee (JTESC) is pleased to announce the athletes in the National Junior Program for 2021. Due to the lack of competition in 2020, no changes to team placement into the Junior National Team (JNT) were made at this time. Applications to the Junior Development Team (JDT) are accepted year round. JDT athletes who applied to be considered for the JNT may be moved up as they reach JNT performance targets.

2021 Junior National Team
Diana Aleksieva, QOC
Jessica Colleran, COC
Christiane Fletcher, GAOC
Bridget Hall, NEOC
Keegan Harkavy, NEOC
Kirsten Mayland, DVOA
Alex (Alexis) Merka, QOC
AJ (Anthony) Riley, DVOA
David Runde, MNOC, KristiansandOK
Emilia  Schmidt, QOC, Tampereen Pyrintö
Adrian Vartia, OK Löftan Sweden


Junior Development Team
Max Ahmed, QOC
Jack Barkley, COC
Ben Brady, COC
Ian Dunlap, OLOU
Mori  Finlayson-Johnecheck, NEOC/CSU
Luke Menzie, COC
Jasper Ralinovsky, OCIN
Oriana Riley, DVOA
Zoe Sibthorp, COC
Ava Suhocki, DVOA
Aubree Winters, COC

2021 JWOC Team Selection Criteria

The JWOC Selection Committee will choose up to six young male and six young female athletes to represent the USA at the 2021 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) in Turkey. In order to be considered a candidate for 2021 JWOC Team Selection, a junior (born in 2001 or later) must meet the IOF eligibility requirements and also declare his/her intent to seek selection by petition.

Because of the uncertainty pertaining to the international organization of and ability to travel to JWOC created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the inability to safely schedule fair JWOC Team Trials as well as the lack of orienteering competitions in 2020, the 2021 JWOC Team Selection will proceed by petition for all athletes who wish to be considered for the team.

The petition shall be evaluated by the Selection Committee using the Team Selection Reviewing Rubrics. The completed petition should include as much of the requested information as possible, and be sent to ousajuniorprogram@nullorienteeringusa.org by May 5, 2021. The Selection Committee will announce the team on or before May 10, 2021.

The 2021 JWOC Selection Criteria document and rubrics may be accessed on the Orienteering USA website.

2021 Senior Team Announced

The Orienteering USA Executive Steering Committee (ESC) is pleased to announce the Senior Team for 2021. Due to the lack of competition in 2020, no changes to team placement were made in the Elite & Performance squads. The Development squad welcomes three new members: Bridget Hall (NEOC), A.J. Riley (DVOA) and Danny Riley (CAOC).

2021 US Senior Team

Elite
Greg Ahlswede
Ali Crocker
Morten Jorgenson
Anton Salmenkyla

Performance
Giacomo Barbone
Tori Borish
Alison Campbell
Will Enger
Syd Fisher


Development
Joe Barrett
Evalin Brautigam
Tyra Christopherson
Julia Doubson
Bridget Hall*
Michael Laraia
Thomas Laraia
A.J. Riley*
Danny Riley*
* denotes new members

Previous years teams can be found in the OUSA Library.

Puzzle Friday: Southwest Spring Weekend ’21

Happy Friday everyone! This week’s puzzling excursion takes us to Arizona where, in a normal year, the annual Southwest Spring Week Orienteering Festival (SWSW) would have taken place. But, like most things over the past 12 months, this year’s festival was reduced to a mere Spring Weekend ’21 but that still beats no orienteering at all. Three great maps, 3 great events. Thanks to the hard working folks at Tucson Orienteering Club (TSN) for keeping the tradition alive and sharing their event with us.

Mark your calendars for next year! SWSW 2022 will take place February 19-27, 2022.

YMP Map of the Month – February 2021

The Youth Mapping Program February Map of the Month feature is the William A. Hough High School in Cornelius, NC.  Due to Covid-19, the Hough HS JROTC unit has not met in person, says Walter Siegenthaler who provided the ‘eyes-on-the-ground’ field checking of the new map.  A multi-session series of virtual classes has been conducted via Zoom to about 45 cadets and it is anticipated that in-person use of the map will commence toward the end of the month.

Mapper Chris Gkikas (WNCOC) notes “This was my first time working with the YMP and it was a great experience from start to finish. Jon (Campbell) is a fantastic map consultant and effectively raised my mapping and drafting skills to a whole new level.  The map was drafted entirely in Open Orienteering Mapper, a free and open source alternative to the industry standard OCAD.”

Are you interested in flexing your cartography skills and joining the growing team of YMP mappers?  Sign up here.  Note: Mappers for the YMP are remote cartographers with field checking performed by persons from the recipient organization collaborating with you remotely as well as support from the core YMP consultant.

Puzzle Friday: Georgia Navigator ’21

This week we’re taking a look back at last month’s Georgia Navigator Cup down at Sweetwater Creek Park organized by the Georgia Orienteering Club (GAOC). In a normal year, the Georgia Navigator Cup is a national event drawing competitors from all over the country but with the coronavirus situation still firmly entrenched, the organizers elected to hold the event as a regional, non-sanctioned event for 2021. Hopefully the GNC will return as a national event in 2022.

2020 Iain Wilson Character Through Competition Award

Philadelphia, PA — The Wilson Awards, in partnership with Orienteering USA, is pleased to announce the winners of the seventh annual Iain Wilson Character Through Competition Award.  This award honors the memory of Iain Wilson by recognizing young athletes whose efforts demonstrate character through their commitment to growth and improvement in the sport as well as their contribution to the orienteering community through service and teamwork. This year’s announcement was delayed from spring 2020 due to the impact Coronavirus has had on training and competition.

We are excited to announce the winners, Bridget Hall and Keegan Harkavy  of New England Orienteering Club and Christiane Fletcher of Georgia Orienteering Club. Each athlete will each receive a $1,000  grant for orienteering travel and expenses. Additionally, applications for the 2021 Individual and Community Growth Awards are being accepted now through April 30, 2021 and can be found at  https://orienteeringusa.org/about/recognition/.

Read the full Press Release

Puzzle Friday: Smokey Glen

Good morning campers! This week’s puzzle takes a look back at last years QOC Bumble – the last event I ran before coronavirus set in. It was a really fun time… The Bumble is a goat-style race with a score-o twist – controls are arranged into windows, controls within a window can be visited in any order, but you must visit all controls in a window before moving on to the next window. Do as many windows as you like and windows can be done in any order.

This years Bumble (modified for COVID compliance) is tomorrow (Feb 6th) at Hoyles Mill, MD and as of this writing, there are still a few spots open. Pre-registration is mandatory and will close at 6pm this evening. Event link. Have a great weekend!

Overlook NRE & Letchworth BillyGoat

IMPORTANT UPDATE: As of September 6th 2021, the fall event is postponed and will now be held on May 7th, 2022. And Sunday’s goat event will be the 42nd running of the venerable BillyGoat. Mark your calendars!

Rochester Orienteering Club (ROC) is taking the optimistic route choice to the end of the Covid Pandemic and is scheduling an orienteering weekend September 18/19, 2021.  The following announcement is from Race Director Rick Worner:

“On Saturday we will host a one-day NRE middle distance event on a new map at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area and on Sunday we will offer a GOAT-style event at Letchworth East so that people can enjoy a full weekend of activity in the woods.

The plan at this point is to start the Saturday event at 1PM to give people an opportunity to drive in on the morning of the event. Harriet Hollister is around 40 minutes south of Rochester, NY overlooking Honeoye Lake. It has a moderate trail system, interesting contour detail and very open woods. Mark Dominie is the mapmaker. Stina Bridgeman will be the course setter.

The GOAT event at Letchworth East will start and finish at an area outside the park gates to avoid any crowding in the park . Tom Roycroft is the course setter and plans to offer a long (10K+), medium (6-8K) and short (4-5K) versions of the courses. It will be a mass start at 9AM if Covid permits, otherwise it will be some sort of interval or socially distanced start procedure to comply with the OUSA and NYS Parks guidelines.

The park is open at this time of year and offers camping and cabins.  https://newyorkstateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/letchworthstatepark/r/campgroundDetails.do? Motels south of Rochester are about a 45 minute drive and there are a limited number of motels closer to the park. With the early start on Sunday people should be able to head home by noon. We will likely wait until later in the spring to open registration to see how the vaccination process proceeds and to avoid having to refund fees in case we have to cancel the event. Due to parking and NYS  Park regulations we will likely have to limit the number of entries to 150 people. More on this as we get closer to the event.

We really look forward to seeing many of our orienteering friends again. Fingers crossed.”