2026 Nationals Event Recap

March 19-22, 2026

This year’s Sprint, Middle, and Long Championships took place in Maryland in a great variety of terrain that provided orienteers with different challenges each day!

  • Host: Quantico Orienteering Club
  • Venue:
    • University of Maryland (Sprint), College Park, MD (Sprint)
    • Bowie State University, Bowie, MD (Middle)
    • Bacon Ridge Natural Area, Crownsville, MD (Long)
  • Personnel
    • Event Director: Don Fish
    • Registrar and timing: Valerie Meyer
    • Course Designers: Jon Torrance (Sprint), Mihai Sirbu (Middle), Ted Good (Long)

Event website

Results & Maps

Closing Remarks

In a world where it seems like there are many outside pressures and significant disagreement about just about everything, I truly appreciated the positive, joyful vibe of our community coming together this weekend.

The weekend was full of wonderful moments:

  • The smiles on people’s faces as they reconnected with friends from across the country and around the world.
  • The opportunity to hang around together in the arena and enjoy each other’s company.
  • The top-notch competition and event support.
  • The participation of a robust and mutually-supportive group of JWOC- and WUOC-hopeful team trialers.
  • The inspiration of so many sidebars with people taking steps to move our sport forward.

We come from many backgrounds, but our shared love of the sport makes orienteering events truly special. Thank you to QOC for hosting us and to the many volunteers that made this event possible. We appreciate you!

– OUSA President Tori Campbell

Media

All photos in this post are by Jeanette Dunlap.

Online Course Review for 2026 Nationals

As is now tradition, there will be an online course review of select legs from this past weekend’s US Sprint, Middle, and Long Championships this Wednesday evening at 9pm ET. The session will be hosted by Peter Gagarin and Caroline Sandbo, who will use Livelox and their own expertise to discuss different route choices, the difficulties runners faced, and how best to approach some of the legs that gave people trouble. This is worth attending whether or not you competed at Nationals!

Join the meeting on Google Meet at 9pm ET on Wednesday, March 25th.

If you have suggestions for particular legs you’d like to see discussed, please email caroline.sandbo@nullorienteeringusa.org.

2026 World Ski Orienteering Championships Event Recap

The US team after the Sprint Relay (credit: Takako Hirokawa)

The World Ski Orienteering Championships (WSOC) took place in Rusutsu, Japan from March 2-6. The US sent a team of four athletes to the competition, with veteran international ski-o competitor Chris Burnham (Green Mountain Orienteering Club) providing guidance to newcomers Tamra Kornfield (Arctic Orienteering Club), Lauren Wardwell (Green Mountain Orienteering Club), and Josh Yeaton (Empire Orienteering Club).  The competition was based out of the Rusutsu ski resort, which meant lots of narrow tracks going up and down extremely steep climbs and descents with a ridiculous amount of snow. It wasn’t uncommon to see snow banks 6-10 feet high on the sides of the roads!

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Santa Fe Dam 2026 NRE Event Recap

February 1, 2026

Host: Los Angeles Orienteering Club (LAOC)

Venue: Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area, Irwindale, California

This event was a one-day National Ranking Event (NRE) and also served as the NJROTC Area 21 Championships. Events like these promote a higher level of competition for regional competitors without the extra work and expectations of a full NRE weekend.

Photos by Recinda Sherman

Results and Maps

Georgia Navigator Cup Event Recap

January 16-19, 2026

  • Host: Georgia Orienteering Club (GAOC)
  • Friday: Middle Distance NRE at McIntosh Reserve Park
  • Saturday/Sunday: 2-Day Classic at Chattahoochee Bend State Park
  • Monday: Mal Harding Extreme-O at McIntosh Reserve Park
  • Event Website

Photo of Ben Cooper by Bruce Moore.

Photos by Gene Wee and Bruce Moore.

Results, Photos, and Maps

Hoosier Woodlands NRE Event Recap

December 13, 2025

It was a snowy day at the Hoosier Woodlands for ICO’s first solo National Ranking Event!

  • Host: Indiana Crossroads Orienteering
  • Venue: Story West, Hoosier National Forest
  • Key Event Personnel:
    • Course Setter:  Mattias Eriksson
    • Mapper:  Robert Minto
    • Event Director:  Brenda Blacklock

Photos by Mattias Eriksson and Mike Minium.

Results, Maps, & Photos

Stumble Weekend 2025 Event Recap

November 15-16, 2025

Stumble Weekend 2025 consisted of a Middle National Ranking Event (NRE) and
Susquehanna Stumble XXV. The Stumble is a long distance mass start event with a twist: competitors run between most controls in normal sequential order but occasionally enter a “window” where several controls can be visited in ANY order. 

Results, Maps, and Photos

Photos by Amy Louden, Paige Suhocki, Chrissy Szemere Miller, and possibly others!

Some photos from QOC on their Facebook post

WCOC Brooksvale Park NRE Event Recap

Oct 26, 2026

Host: Western Connecticut Orienteering Club (WCOC)

Venue: Brooksvale Park, Hamden, CT

Meet Directors: Susan DeWitt and Ellen Morse

Course Setter: Niels Lyng-Olsen

The basemap for this event was created by former OUSA Communications Manager Clinton Morse and field checked by Clinton Morse and J-J Cote.

Results, Maps, and Photos

Photos by Evalin Brautigam and Mike Minium

2025 Nationals Event Recap

October 11-13, 2025

US Orienteers were treated to three days of high-quality orienteering in the Boston area, capped by a delightful city sprint during a nor’easter.

  • Venues:
    • Rocky Woods Reservation (Middle), Medfield, MA
    • Powissett Peak (Long), Dover, MA
    • Boston’s North End (Sprint), Boston, MA
  • Personnel:
    • Event director: Jon Campbell
    • Race directors: Kristin Hall (Sat & Sun), Barb Bryant (Mon)
    • Course Setters: Magnus Bjorkman (Middle), John Nash (Long), Graeme Ackland (Sprint)
    • OUSA Course consultant: Dave Tallent

Event Website

Results

Media