Rochester hosted an Ultralong NRE course with wave starts. This enabled a mass start experience with the people in your own age class.
Host: Rochester Orienteering Club (ROC)
Venue: Mendon Ponds Park, Rochester, NY
Event Director: Rick Worner
Course setter: Sergey Dobretsov
Two Sprint NREs in one day in the western NY city of Buffalo.
Host: Buffalo Orienteering Club (BFLO)
Venues:
Event Director: David Cady
Course setters:
All photos by Evalin Brautigam.
Photo album from Evalin Brautigam
Unfortunately, the planned Saturday afternoon relay event was cancelled due to the winter weather, which had caused a 2-hour delay to the morning event.
The photos above are all by Evalin Brautigam and the West Point Public Affairs Office
Hosts: Orienteering Cincinnatti (OCIN) and Indiana Crossroads Orienteering (ICO)
Venues:
This event features some wild weather, cancelling Sunday’s long race, and a fairly unique urban middle distance race on Sunday.
Photos above by Evalin Brautigam and OCIN.
The US Youth Ski Orienteering Team delivered record-breaking performances at the 2025 European Youth Ski Orienteering Championships, which serves as the de facto World Youth SkiO Championships.
Erik Fey led the team with historic results, placing 5th in the long, 6th in the sprint, 6th in the middle, and anchoring the US to 6th in the relay—marking the best-ever individual finish by a male non-European in a major international skiO event. [Ali Crocker has the best ever American result, with a 4th place in a 2011 World Cup race.] He narrowly missed 4th in the long by just four seconds, pushing to the limit in the final stretch. “I really wanted a top-three finish, but I’m proud of my performance and our growing US SkiO youth team,” Erik reflected.
Liam Browne (22nd), Euell Browne (24th), and Mark Fey (25th) also delivered strong results in the long distance race, with Euell edging Mark by five seconds.. The Browne brothers, competing in their first international skiO event, impressed many, showcasing the rising strength of Grizzly Orienteering Club in Montana and the US SkiO program.
Liam called the experience “amazing,” crediting Erik and Finnish champion Niklas Hirvilahti for inspiring his improvement. When reflecting back on the week of races Euell Brown said, “It was a great privilege to race for my country at European Youth Champs. My navigation got better with each race, and by the long event I felt much better making decisions on the go. I am very thankful
for encouragement of my team: Mark, Erik, Liam and Coach Carl!”
With Erik and Liam moving up to the junior category next year, the US Youth SkiO Team seeks new talent. Interested athletes and media inquiries can contact Coach Carl Fey at carlffey@nullgmail.com.
Host: North Texas Orienteering Association (NTOA)
Venue: Sid Richardson Scout Ranch, Bridgetport, TX
This event was a two-day Classic distance NRE, and also the Interscholastic and Intercollegiate Championships.
The US Boys Youth Ski-Orienteering Team finished 6th today in the relay at the European Youth Ski-Orienteering Championships. This is the best relay result for the US ever at a European Youth Ski-Orienteering Championships, which this year are taking place in Posio, Finland, far North of the arctic circle, March 20-23, 2025.
Erik Fey skied the first leg, getting the team off to a good start. Erik finished third on his leg, one minute and 18 seconds behind the leader and 10 seconds behind second place. Erik’s solid result motivated his relay teammates Liam Browne from Montana and younger brother Mark Fey, who both skied solidly to help the team to earn an impressive and record-breaking sixth place for the US. It is especially impressive that this was Liam’s first international ski-orienteering race. Results in ski-orienteering seem to be influenced by genetics as the US Youth Boys’ Team consists of two sets of brothers this year. Liam’s younger brother Euell skied the first leg of the relay for the second US team (which was incomplete) and was only slightly behind Mark and Liam–a very impressive result for his first international ski-orienteering race. The race was won by Finland followed by Sweden and Czech Republic.
The races took place in an area that included a large lake and much marshland as well as some steep, but rather short, hills (see the above map). The race finished with a tough steep 20 meter climb to the finish which was difficult for many athletes tired at the end of their races, but the US’s last leg skier Mark Fey looked strong as he sprinted up the hill to the finish. Liam and Euell come from a strong background in cross-country skiing and come from the Grizzly Orienteering Club in Montana, which has been producing an increasing number of strong orienteers and ski-orienteers in recent years. The Browne brothers also ski for the strong Glacier Nordic Ski Team.
When asked about his race Erik said, “I skied a solid race today and am pleased I stayed calm and in control which was our game plan.” US Ski-O Team Coach Carl Fey commented, “It is great to see that the US Ski-O Youth Team is becoming stronger and deeper than in past years. I am really impressed with how well the Browne brothers did today given that this was their first international race. They clearly have much talent, and I expect them to have a great future in ski-orienteering. It was also good to see that hard training by Erik is paying off allowing him to ski a very good first leg for the relay team.”
The US Youth Ski-Orienteering Team would like to thank their main sponsor Berman Orienteering Supply for their important support. The races continue tomorrow with a sprint race followed by a medium length race on Saturday and a long race on Sunday. You can follow the US Ski-O Team’s results at: Liveservices – Lapin Lumirastit & ESOC, JWSOC, EYSOC 2025. Enquires from the press or messages of good luck to the US Ski-O Team can be sent to: carlffey@nullgmail.com
Hosts: Tucson Orienteering Club & Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club
Venues: First six races southeast of Tucson, AZ. Seventh race in Tucson. Final three races northeast of Phoenix, AZ
SWSW is an almost-annual weeklong festival of casual orienteering in warm Arizona.
Website: southwestspringweek.org
Photos by Evalin Brautigam
Crowdsourced photos on the Tucson Orienteers Facebook Group
Host: Bay Area Orienteering Club
Venues:
This event served as the Team Trials for the Junior World Orienteering Champs (Fri, Sat, Sun) and the World Orienteering Champs (Sat, Sun). Additionally, combined scores for the best two of three days were used to determined the winners of the Western State Champs, an informal competition for orienteers residing in one of the western states (those states with a peak above 10,000′).
Photos by Evalin Brautigam and Cristina Luis
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
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.
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.
