Month: February 2025

YMP February Map of the Month

The Youth Mapping Program February Map of the Month is Santiago High School in Corona, CA. The school’s AFJROTC (Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program uses this map to train Orienteering Team members, for school competitions, and as part of an orienteering lesson aligned with California Common Core State Standards. According to Senior Aerospace Science Instructor Michael H. Manney, the best part of having the map is that it “allows students to be introduced and practically practice orienteering on an approved OUSA course map.”

The map below includes controls added by Santiago High School for their orienteering lesson.

Have you received a map from OUSA’s Youth Mapping Program? We want to hear how you’re using it! Let us know here.

Announcing the 2025 US National Orienteering Team

The Selection Committee (Peggy Dickison, Matt Smith, and Will Enger) is pleased to announce the 2025 US National Orienteering Team.

The committee received 55 applications and 45 athletes were selected to the National Team, earning a place on one of three squads: Elite, Performance, and Junior. Those athletes on the Elite Squad are those who we would expect to make up the WOC Team if the trials were held now. Performance athletes are those who in any given race can perform at the Elite level and may develop into an athlete capable of competing for the WOC Team. Junior athletes, those under 21, are only eligible for the Junior Squad. They are eligible to compete for the WOC and the JWOC teams.

We welcome six new members to the Team, one returning member, and one promotion from Performance to Elite. 

Look for these Team members in the US Team Blog, helping at NREs and local events, and coaching. All are fine representatives of orienteering, and we look forward to seeing what they are capable of this year.

Congratulations to all the members of the 2025 National US Orienteering Team!

2025 US National Orienteering Team

  • Elite Squad
    • Lily Addicott – Promotion – GAOC
    • Greg Ahlswede – DVOA, Escondite (Spain)
    • Joseph Barrett – NMO
    • Evalin Brautigam – WCOC
    • Alison Campbell – DVOA, STAG (Scotland)
    • Alison Crocker – CROC
    • Thomas Curiger – OLC Kapreolo (Switzerland), OK Orion (Sweden)
    • Sydney Fisher – EMPO
    • Bridget Hall – NEOC, MNOC
    • Keegan Harkavy – NEOC
    • Thomas Laraia – MNOC
    • Anthony Riley – DVOA
    • Danny Riley – ECO
    • Ricardo Schaniel – Bussola OK (Switzerland)
  • Performance Squad
    • Diana Aleksieva – QOC
    • Eric Bone – COC
    • Jessica Colleran – COC
    • Shawn Mather – USMAOC
    • Kirsten Mayland – DVOA
    • Alex Merka – QOC, OB Říčany
    • Dylan Poe – ICO, OCIN
    • Oriana Riley – DVOA
    • Mathew Rogers – New to team! – COC
    • Collin Thompson – New to team! – USMAOC
    • Grace Zoppi – SMOC, COC
  • Junior Squad
    • Ben Brady – GrizO
    • Danny Buchholz – COC
    • Anna Campbell – TSN, NEOC
    • Ben Conley – GrizO, COC
    • Ben Cooper – COC
    • Kate deBlonk – New to team! – GrizO, NEOC
    • Ian Dunlap – OLOU
    • Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck – NEOC
    • Anna Green – New to team! – SMOC
    • Ludvig Hagwall – Järla Orientering (Sweden)
    • Sophie Howes – COC
    • Min-Jae Kuo – New to team! – NEOC
    • Greta Leonard – COC
    • Kendal O’Callaghan – New to team! – RMOC
    • David Rogers – New to team! – COC
    • Jackson Rupe – COC
    • Adalia Schafrath-Craig – New to team! – BOK
    • Paige Suhocki – DVOA
    • Samantha Walker – QOC
    • Zariah Zosel – COC, GrizO

2025 OUSA Rules published

The 2025 OUSA Rules document is now available in the OUSA Library. Note that sections A.35 and A.36 were combined, so any rule references in other documents that were A.35 through A.44 will need to be changed. 

Please send any comments, corrections, or broken links to rules@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Notable changes from 2024:

  • In accordance with the vote at the AGM, punching rules were changed in the Foot-O section
    • Manual punching has been removed and replaced with “Only IOF electronic punching systems may be used”
    • Contactless punching is now required to be enabled, but competitors must not be required to utilize it. (i.e. you need to let someone use a non-Air stick.)
    • Changed some punching rules language to better match IOF rules.
  • Intercollegiate and Interscholastic sections were merged and language changed for consistency.
    • Added the possibility of mixed teams that cross IC/IS classes. 
    • Teams are now consistently defined as having 2 to 5 competitors. Scoring section updated to state that a team of 2 will be scored as though they had a third person who scores DNF.
  • Club Team classes at Jr. Nationals changed
    • The only championship Club Team class at Jr. Nationals will now be a mixed team class. Removed Club Varsity, Club JV, and Club Intermediate from the Championship list. It is not necessary to offer these classes. If offered, they are not eligible for championship awards.
    • Removed requirement that Club Teams must not be eligible as a School or JROTC Team. Competitors may run for both their club and school and/or JROTC unit. With the mixed Club teams, it is anticipated that Club teams will likely have differing rosters than School and JROTC teams. 

The Lookback: 1979 World Orienteering Championships

US Team for the 1979 World Orienteering Championships in Tampere, Finland. From left to right: Pat Dunleavy, Peter Gagarin, Steve Tarry, Linda Taylor, Jim Pugh, Virginia Lehman, Mikell Platt, Sharon Crawford, Eric Weyman, Beth Skelton, Betty Anderson, Gail Gagarin.

Shortly after sending out the December, 2024 OUSA Newsletter I received an email from Jim Pugh with the 1979 WOC team photo you see above, and the suggestion to include it in an upcoming newsletter. This seemed like a great idea. With a few more photos from Jim, plus some stories and maps from Peter Gagarin, this little look back into the past was born. Enjoy this peak into the US team’s past!

–Cristina

Map of the Individual courses for WOC 1979, annotated with routes for the top men and women.

Some memories from Peter Gagarin from the World Orienteering Championships in Tampere, Finland, in 1979 –

The team was selected at Team Trials in May at Quabbin (days 1 and 3) and Mount Hermon School (day 2) in Massachusetts. Women: Sharon Crawford, Beth Skelton, Betty Andersen, Linda Taylor, Virginia Lehman. Men: Eric Weyman, Mikell Platt, Steve Tarry, Jim Pugh, Peter Gagarin. Many of us lived in the Northeast and we got together on several weekends for training before heading to Finland in late August.

It was really hard orienteering. The forests were hilly with lots of thick vegetation; the ground was very soft and hard to run on. There were just two events, individual and relay, with the maps for both drawn at 1:20,000. And yet we had some excellent results, especially from our women. Sharon Crawford was 32nd out of 69 in the individual, certainly one of our best results ever, and the women finished 10th out 17 in the relay, which I think is our best ever. Eric Weyman was our best in the men’s individual, 53rd of 78, and the men finished 14th out of 19 in the relay. [Link to results on the IOF webpage.]

The women’s relay team was really something. Beth Skelton ran the opening leg, a good run for her, and then Sharon on the second leg had her usual good run. Third leg went to Betty Andersen, though that was in doubt until the last moment – she had taken a fall in the individual, landing on a stump someplace on her ribs, and was really hurting. But she wanted to run. I put her through some sort of test that morning to see if she really could run and she passed, and so when Sharon came in, off went Betty on the anchor leg.

There was no GPS in those days, no TV from the forest. I think there were a couple of radio controls, but at the finish you just wait, as the better teams keep coming in. And then there she was, 10th, first of the English-speaking countries, ahead of Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, plus France and Poland for good measure. It was really amazing.

I ran just the relay, first leg, not perfect but a good run. It was raining. My map case wasn’t sealed, and the map got wet, and the ink for the courses wasn’t waterproof and it started to run, but it held up just well enough to tell where my controls were. The ink kept running for quite a while after I had stopped running, so it looks almost impossible to read now. It wasn’t that bad.

Map from the men’s relay at the 1979 World Orienteering Championships.

The map for the individual shows the routes of the medalists and my map for the relay is shown. Also, just for comparison, the next map I went orienteering on back home, Estabrook Woods in Concord, Mass. Quite the difference.

Map from a local event at Estabrook Woods in Concord, MA later the same month as WOC.

2025 Desert Orienteering Festival Event Recap

Jan 18-20, 2025

Events:

  • The Adventure Trek (2 hour score-O)
  • The Maze Middle
  • The Night Goat
  • The Classic

Host: San Diego Orienteering
Venue: Anza-Borrego State Park, Borrego Springs CA
Event Director: Mark Prior
Event Website

Results, Maps and Photos

Crowdsourced photos by Sasha Savine, John Crowther, and Amy Winston in the Orienteering USA Facebook page album.

If you have photos from this event and are willing to share them with the wider OUSA community please reach out!