Category: Announcements

Announcements for OUSA

OUSA Welcomes SkyPilots

Orienteering USA is pleased to welcome its newest chartered club, Sky Pilots Endurance Navigators, to its ranks. Sky Pilots is a multi-disciplinary club focusing on orienteering, mountaineering and endurance events – often with unusual event formats. They are located in western Colorado.

The club’s founders Eric Robinson and Ginny LaForme are ultrarunners and former North American rogaining age group champions. They met in Colorado’s San Juan mountains. In a rather strange coincidence, each discovered that the other had for years been hosting an informal run called Las Trampas, unknown to each other and in two different states. In 2004, they married, and in 2018, they moved to Ouray, Colorado and have been busy exploring and mapping the surrounding public lands ever since.

This past weekend the club hosted a ‘Backyard Ultra‘ in which competitors run a 4.167 mile course in beautiful Ouray, CO. Sounds easy enough, right? Well every hour, on the hour, athletes must line up and do it again until only one person remains to start the hourly lap (aka ‘yards’) and complete it. This year’s winner toughed out 35 yards for a total of 145.95 miles. Yowsa!


Perhaps running the same 4.167 loop every hour isn’t your cup of tea? Well coming up on June 4th the Sky Pilots will present the Lost One Standing, a unique mashup of Backyard Ultra with orienteering and rogaining. This 24 hour event, starting at 9am Saturday, will feature 24 different courses on 1:7500 maps with at least 6 each at beginner, intermediate and advanced difficulty levels.

At the beginning of each hour, select, start and complete one of the courses (1-6 controls per course) – you can only do each course once so choose wisely. Mass start at the top of each hour and you must complete the course within 60 minutes to remain in the primary competition. If you can’t get around the course in under an hour (or can’t get back to the start line for the next hour), you will drop down to the secondary competition in which you can continue to participate, but no longer constrained by the one hour limit. Starts in the secondary competition are every half hour, but you can take as long as needed to complete your course, rest between courses etc.

Western Colorado has some amazingly scenic terrain so be sure to check out their webpage for event information and to ogle the gorgeous scenery. You can also join their active public group on Facebook or follow them on Strava.

Eric approaching treeline above Ironton
All photos in this post courtesy of Sky Pilots Endurance Navigation

2022 WUOC Team Announced

The selection committee for the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) is pleased to announce the 2022 team for this biennial competition. The committee members are Linda Kohn, Peggy Dickison, Will Enger and Jeff Saeger.

The competition will be held in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland from August 16-21, 2022 and is open to athletes between ages 18 & 25 that are currently registered in a degree/diploma granting program of study at a recognized institution of higher learning or having earned said degree within the prior 12 month period.

Congratulations to the following athletes who have been selected to represent TeamUSA at this year’s World University Orienteering Championships!!

  • Men
    • Keegan Harkavy
    • Thomas Laraia
    • AJ Riley
    • Danny Riley
    • Tyler Wilson
    • Peter Zakrevski
    • Edgardo Cruz (1st alternate)
  • Women
    • Diana Aleksieva
    • Jessica Colleran
    • Julia Doubson
    • Bridget Hall
    • Kirsten Mayland
    • Oriana Riley
    • Grace Zoppi (1st alternate)
Keegan Harkavy
Harvard University
Thomas Laraia
University of Edinburgh
AJ Riley
Stanford University
Danny Riley
Cornell University
Tyler Wilson
US Military Academy
Peter Zakrevski
Rutgers University
Diana Aleksieva
University of Virginia
Jessica Colleran
University of Washington
Julia Doubson
Amherst College
Bridget Hall
Mt Holyoke College
Kirsten Mayland
Dartmouth College
Oriana Riley
Stanford University
Edgardo Cruz (1st alt)
US Military Academy
Grace Zoppi (1st alt)
University of Washington

2022 WOC Team Announced

The WOC Selection Committee (Jeff Saeger, Glen Tryson & Peggy Dickison) is pleased to announce the US Team for this year’s World Orienteering Championships in Denmark. This years championships, to be held June 26-30, will be the first WOC to focus exclusively on the sprint discipline (aka Sprint WOC). Future WOC’s will alternate between Forest WOC & Sprint WOC formats.

The first event will be a Sprint Relay in the town of Kolding which includes an old town area with asymmetrical street patterns including the castle Koldinghus dating from around 1200 that rises about 20m above the town.

Image: Hubertus, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The second event will consist of qualifying and final rounds of a Knock-Out Sprint in and around the military fortifications of Fredericia, characterized by hilly ramparts now covered by grass and forest. Within the fortifications lies the town proper with a symmetrical road network divided into quadrants.

Image: CC BY-SA 1.0 via WikiTravel

The final events of the championship will be the Individual Sprint qualification and final races in the Danish town of Vejle including a complex old town area with shopping streets, backyards and narrow alleyways. Modern residential areas with public buildings and schools are also present. To the north lies a steep 90m slope with deep ravines and partly vegetated with deciduous forest areas. To the south lies a flat area cut by multiple railways and two water courses passable by bridges and, in some cases, tunnels.

Privat fotograf, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Because the sprint relay team consists of 2 men + 2 women, TeamUSA will be sending three men and three women to this year’s competition. Congratulations to the following athletes selected to represent the US at this years Sprint WOC:

  • Men
    • Joe Barrett – QOC
    • Sergei Ryzhkov – DVOA
    • Ricardo Schaniel – Bussola OK
    • Eric Bone – COC (alternate)
  • Women
    • Tori Borish – RMOC
    • Evalin Brautigam – WCOC
    • Alison Campbell – DVOA
    • Oriana Riley – DVOA (alternate)

Because the relay is the first event, it has been pre-determined that Joe Barrett, Ricardo Schaniel, Tori Borish, and Evalin Brautigam will run the relay, running order to be determined.

Joe Barrett
QOC
Sergei Ryzhkov
DVOA
Ricardo Schaniel
Bussola OK
Tori Borish
RMOC
Evalin Brautigam
WCOC
Alison Campbell
DVOA
Eric Bone (alt)
COC
Oriana Riley (alt)
DVOA

There will also be a WOC Tour held concurrently with 3 Sprint races held on the same terrains the WOC competitors will face plus 3 Forest Middle distance races for spectators to enjoy. Come to Denmark and cheer on TeamUSA and get a solid week of races in for yourself as well!

2022 JWOC Team Announced

The JWOC Selection Committee (Tori Borish, Greg Ahlswede and Jon Torrance) is pleased to announce the 2022 US Team selected to compete at the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) to be held July 10-16 in Aguiar da Beira, Portugal.

  • Women:
  • Alexis Merka
  • Anna Campbell
  • Bridget Hall
  • Kirsten Mayland
  • Lily Addicott
  • Zoe Sibthorp
  • Annika Mihata (1st alternate)
  • Oriana Riley (2nd alternate)
  • Men:
  • Benjamin Brady
  • Holden Sopoti
  • Keegan Harkavy
  • Victor Frolenko

National Team member Evalin Brautigam, Head Coach & Teacher at Orienteering South Australia, will accompany the team to Portugal in the role of head coach.

Congratulations to all our 2022 JWOC athletes!

Alexis Merka
(QOC)
Anna Campbell
(NEOC)
Bridget Hall
(NEOC)
Kirsten Mayland
(DVOA)
Lily Addicott
(GAOC)
Zoe Sibthorp
(COC)
Annika Mihata (1st alt) (COC)
Oriana Riley (2nd alt)
(DVOA)
Ben Brady
(COC)
Holden Sopoti
(USMAOC)
Keegan Harkavy
(NEOC)
Victor Frolenko
(DVOA)

National Team adds two new members

The National Team Executive Steering Committee (ESC) is pleased to announce the addition of two new athletes to the Junior Squad roster.

Oriana Riley from the Delaware Valley Orienteering Association is currently attending Stanford University. She has been competing consistently this year at the Georgia O-Fest in January including the Sprint WRE in F-21+, the Big Woods Classic NRE in March and most recently the West Point NRE held this past weekend in New York where she took part in the WOC Team Trials in F-21+. She is currently nationally ranked 6th in F-20.

Zoe Sibthorp from the Cascade Orienteering Club joins Oriana on the Junior Squad and currently attends Woodinville Montessori High School in Washington. Zoe is currently ranked 5th in F-20 having recently competed at the Lighthouse Middle NRE in February and the OUSA Junior Nationals in early April.

Congratulations to both of you and we look forward to your continued success as members of TeamUSA!!

42nd Annual West Point NRE Recap

April 23-24, 2022

Saturday AM: Middle at Black Rock Forest

Saturday PM: Sprint at Trophy Point

Sunday: Long Distance at Black Rock Forest

OUSA Seeks Volunteers for Key Program Roles

Youth Mapping Program Outreach Coordinator

The Youth Mapping Program (YMP) Committee is seeking volunteer(s) who would be willing to help us with outreach to identify new schools and non-profit youth organizations who would be interested in a map. This role involves:

  • Identifying organizations with missions and terrain that align with YMP opportunities. In particular, organizations with terrain that supports mapping from a distance (i.e. open areas rather than dense forests), or that is near a YMP mapper’s location. Don’t worry – no mapping expertise is necessary.
  • Publicizing opportunities and contacting organizations to get them excited about trying orienteering
  • Connecting them with other Orienteering USA (OUSA) assets (list of local clubs, education website, etc)
  • Following up with organizations who have received YMP created maps, in order to generate stories of their map use, to be used by the National Communications Manager to further publicize and grow the program

For more information about the Youth Mapping Program, see the Youth Mapping Program page on the OUSA website.  Interested people should contact the YMP Committee at YMPCommittee@nullorienteeringusa.org.

OUSA Rankings Coordinator

After many, many years of volunteer service maintaining the US foot orienteering rolling rankings, OUSA’s longtime rankings coordinator Valerie Meyer has decided to step aside. OUSA therefore stands in need of one or more people to do the work of keeping the rankings updated as National Ranking Event (NRE) results come in.

The required qualifications are modest – passable computer literacy, including basic skills in using spreadsheet software, and access to Microsoft Excel are really all that is required, given a willingness to put in one to two hours work in the aftermath of every event including one or more NREs (perhaps more for particularly well-attended events or events with a lot of participants new to the rankings, e.g Junior Nationals).

If that sounds like you and keeping the OUSA rankings system going is something you think would give you a warm glow, please contact VP of Competition Jon Torrance at jon.torrance@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Volunteers sought for The World Games

The World Games are coming to the US in a little over 3 months and will feature three elite orienteering events – Middle, Sprint and Sprint Relay. 20 nations will each field a four person team (2 men, 2 women) representing the best orienteers in the world.

We are currently planning to have a production company live streaming the orienteering events, but we need to supplement the filming with 7-10 additional volunteer camera operators to be stationed somewhere in the terrain and operating a video camera, with the possibility for 1-2 small running cameras as well.

No video experience is required, but volunteers should be familiar with international elite orienteering so that they know who to follow/focus on, and understand things such as where runners might be coming from/going to, etc. Having watched a lot of orienteering on tv/livestream is a plus.

If you are interested in helping us create a great event by operating a video camera please fill out this form so that we can see if we can make this a reality.

The organizing team is also still looking for additional volunteers to help fill roles such as control watchers and traffic control during the orienteering events. If you can help out with some of these tasks, please register at https://twg.rosterfy.com/register and be sure to use the sport registration code SORIENTEERING so that you will be assigned to the orienteering pool of volunteers.

TeamUSA: WOC Team Trials update

The National Team ESC has announced that races at the 42nd West Point National Ranking Event weekend will serve as team trials to select a team to compete at the World Orienteering Championships to be held June 26-30 in Denmark.

This year’s WOC will be a ‘sprint-WOC’ featuring a Sprint Relay, Knockout Sprint and Individual Sprint events. As such, the Saturday afternoon sprint (4/23) at Trophy Point will be one of two trials races for team hopefuls. An additional Friday sprint (4/22) is scheduled (pending permitting) to be held at Fort Tryon Park in New York City to serve as the second trials race.

Additional information regarding the Friday sprint will be forthcoming as details are confirmed. At this time only Red & Blue courses will be offered and may be open to non-trialers pending decision of the organizers. Of course the full slate of sprint courses on offer as part of the S/M/L event at West Point are open to all.

Board Adopts RUS/BLR Policy

Orienteering USA supports the recently announced IOF suspensions of the Russian and Belarusian member federations due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. At a special Board meeting held on March 21st, 2022, the Orienteering USA Board adopted the following policy to clarify how these suspensions will affect participation in events sanctioned by Orienteering USA.

Whereas the IOF has suspended the RUS and BLR federations, OUSA adopts the following policy:

1. Participation in OUSA-sanctioned NREs representing Russia and Belarus – the nations, their orienteering federations, and/or clubs affiliated with those federations – is not permitted.

2. Participants displaying symbols that identify them with the states of Russia or Belarus, the Russian or Belarusian Orienteering Federation, or one of their affiliated clubs are subject to disqualification.

3. This policy shall be automatically revoked with respect to each federation if and when the IOF restores the full membership rights of that federation.

Approved March 21, 2022

A copy of this policy can be found in the OUSA Library. The IOF has also published this FAQ concerning the suspensions.