2025 WOC & JWOC Team Trials Announced

The National Team Executive Steering Committee is pleased to announce that the WOC and JWOC Team Trials will be held together at BAOC’s event next March 1-2. The weekend events will take place in Calero County Park, with a middle race on Saturday and a classic on Sunday. There will also be a sprint on Friday afternoon, with the location pending permit approval. The sprint will likely be an NRE; the weekend events definitely will be (and will also serve as the Western State Championships). There will not be a European trials event for WOC this year.

Petitions will be accepted for both WOC and JWOC teams, but Trials attendance is preferred.
For WOC, the Saturday and Sunday events will count for the WOC Team selection. For JWOC, all three events will count for JWOC selection.

While the event is earlier than usual, we hope that knowing well in advance will allow athletes to train adequately. For the northern tier athletes this can be difficult if it’s a snowy winter; we understand but believe that our top athletes are up to the challenge.

More details will follow. The website doesn’t have a lot of information yet, but BAOC is looking forward to hosting the Team athletes and others who want to try out for one of the teams or be there to support them. The concurrent Western States Champs will include all courses and classes for the non-Trialers.

Please see the JWOC 2025 Selection Criteria for details on how the JWOC team will be selected. The 2025 WOC Selection Criteria will be published in early December.

November OUSA Forum: Sprints!

Please join us this Tuesday, November 26th, for a presentation and discussion about sprints orienteering. Senior team member Alison Campbell shares her views on how sprints differ in the USA to Europe, how to train for sprint races, and more! After the presentation there will be time for questions and discussion.

This presentation will be great for competitive athletes, course designers, and anyone interested in learning more about this fast and furious orienteering format!

This session is now available on YouTube.

US Ski-Orienteering Team Selected

The US Ski-Orienteering Team’s Executive Steering Committee is pleased to announce that it has selected the team for the 2025 World Cup based on past results and potential. This is a rebuilding year for the US Ski-O Team so only two people have been selected to the senior team. This year the World Cup races will take place in Norway, Germany, and Finland.  The US Senior team has opted not to race in the races in Finland this year.  

Chris Burnham

Chris Burnham of Stowe, VT was named to the team. Chris comes from a strong skiing background including an impressive 2nd place finish in the American Brikebeiner classic ski marathon in 2022. He is back to international ski-orienteering after taking a two-year break to focus on setting back-country distance skiing records like last year setting the record for the fastest time skiing the largely ungroomed 300km Catamount Trail in Vermont in 6 days, 10 hours, and 31 minutes. When not skiing, Chris is an underwater robot programmer. 

Adrian Owens

Chris will be joined on the team by veteran ski-orienteer Adrian Owens of Craftsbury, VT who also orienteers for Green Mountain Orienteering Club. Adrian was the US’s top performer on the US senior team last year at World Championships. Adrian hopes to use his many years of ski-orienteering experience to ensure that he has clean races. Adrian, who is an outdoor enthusiast and has great concern for the environment even living in an environmentally-friendly home, excels at producing consistent stable race results even in difficult conditions and having good endurance.  

For additional information contact: Carl Fey, US Ski-O Team Coach at: carlffey@nullgmail.com 

US Youth Ski-Orienteering Team Selected for 2025 European Championships in Finland

The US Ski-Orienteering Executive Steering Committee is pleased to announce that the US Team for the 2025 European Youth Ski-Orienteering Championships has been selected based on past results and perceived potential. The races will take place March 19-23, 2025 in Posio, Finland well north of the Artic Circle. One must be 17 or under to race in European Championships and since there are no World Championships for youth, this is the major international ski-orienteering event for people under the age of 17 world-wide. The 2025 team to European Youth Ski-Orienteering Championships consists of: Erik Fey (16 years old), Mark Fey (13 soon 14), Liam Browne (16), and Euell Browne (14 soon 15). There is great excitement in the US ski-orienteering community since most expect that this team will be the strongest youth ski-orienteering boys team that the US has ever fielded.  

Erik Fey at the 2024 Open Nordic Ski-Orienteering Championships in Estonia

Erik Fey will be looking to improve upon his 14th place at European Championships last year.  He will be joined on the team this year for the first time by his younger brother Mark Fey who hopes to have solid results. Erik and Mark both have extensive ski-orienteering experience and currently live in Oslo, Norway and do orienteering and ski-orienteering for the strong Nydalens Skiklub which has other strong ski-orienteers as members such as 2024 Middle Distance and Sprint Relay World Champion in Ski-Orienteering Anna Ulvensøen. They also actively do cross-country skiing for Hemming IL. Their US club is Rochester Orienteering Club.  

This year the US team is full of brothers and the Feys will be joined for the first time by Liam Browne and Euell Browne of Kalispell, MT. Liam is a strong experienced cross-country skier who qualified to be part of the Intermountain Division Ski Team to US Junior Nationals in cross-country skiing last year. He and his younger brother Euell are members of the Glacier Nordic Comp Pro Team which ensures they have extensive regular training year-round. Great lovers of outdoor endurance sports, Liam and Euell were attracted to ski-orienteering thanks to a ski-orienteering race organized in nearby Missoula, MT by Boris Granovskiy and other members of Grizzly Orienteering three years ago. Since then, they have been excited about orienteering and ski-orienteering and rapidly gaining experience and strong results mostly in their area. They are now interested in taking their ski-orienteering racing to the next level and look forward to seeing how they stack up internationally. Look out world, here they come! They are now members of the relatively new, but rapidly becoming quite strong, Grizzly Orienteering Club which would probably win the award for the most improved orienteering club in the US in the last several years if there was such an award.  

Liam Browne at the 2024 US Cross-Country Skiing Junior Nationals

Unfortunately, it is expensive to travel to and race at European Championships. As such, donations to support our increasingly strong US Youth Ski-Orienteering Team would be greatly appreciated and can be made online at orienteeringusa.org. Please note that your donation is for the US Youth Ski-Orienteering Team if it is. For more information about the US Ski-Orienteering Team please contact Team Coach Carl Fey at carlffey@nullgmail.com.

WOC Knock-Out Sprint

Team USA will race in the Knock-Out Sprint, the final race of this year’s World Orienteering Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland. The qualifying round starts quite early; TV coverage for the semi finals and finals starts at 11:00 a.m. Eastern / 8:00 a.m. Pacific. For live tracking and TV coverage, visit this page.

The qualification race will have 3 parallel heats with an interval start. The top runners in each heat qualify for the quarter-finals. The quarter- and semi-finals have multiple sets of 6 runners with a mass start and forking. The final is just one race with 6 runners in a mass start with forking.

Applications open for 52nd CISM World Military Orienteering Team

The 52nd CISM World Military Orienteering Championships (the other WMOC) will take place from October 16-22, 2024 in Cartagena, Spain. This competition is open to active duty personnel from all branches of the military.

Services are now accepting applications for the US Team to compete in the CISM Orienteering Championships. Please complete your applications by July 31st, 2024. 

Reach out to your respective service sports office for more information on how to apply through their systems/processes.  Even though orienteering is not listed on many of the service sport calendars or websites, please apply if you are interested and available.  The services will send your applications to Armed Forces Sports and to the selection committee.

Information on the event:

Links below to the service sports sites and details on applying:

Please also email Maiya Anderson with your expression of interest so that she may reach out to the service sport office if she don’t receive your application through official channels.

MAIYA ANDERSON, Col, USAF, BSC, PhD 
Permanent Professor & Head, Physical Education Department
Director, AF Combatives Program, Center of Excellence
US Air Force Academy, CO
(719)333-9295/2818, DSN 333-9295/2818
Maiya.Anderson@nullafacademy.af.edu

TeamUSA Announces 2024 WOC Roster

The TeamUSA WOC Team Selection Review Panel – Peggy Dickison (chair), Tyra Christopherson, Jeff Saeger, and Glen Tryson – is pleased to announce the Team members for this summer’s Sprint WOC in Edinburgh, Scotland. There were some very strong results, which made our job difficult. We all feel that we have a strong team, and we look forward to seeing your performances.

Given that the Team will not have a coach at WOC (but there will be a Team Administrator, TBD), the Review Panel will determine who runs in the Relay. There will be one team, with two men and two women; we will announce the members soon. (Note that the Team can decide, as a group and with the Team Administrator, to make changes to the relay make-up if everyone feels it is warranted.)

Congratulations to all the Team members and alternates!

WOC Women

  • Evalin Brautigam (NAOC personal spot)
  • Bridget Hall (automatic qualifier from Sprint Storrs)
  • Alison Campbell
  • Lily Addicott (by petition)
  • 1st Alternate: Oriana Riley
  • 2nd Alternate: Paige Suhocki

WOC Men

  • Joe Barrett (NAOC personal spot)
  • Thomas Laraia (automatic qualifier from Sprint Storrs)
  • Keegan Harkavy
  • Ricardo Schaniel
  • Alternate: Anthony (AJ) Riley

TeamUSA Announces 2024 WUOC Roster

The Selection Committee – Jon Torrance, Andrea Berger, Eric Bone, Ethan Childs, and Ioana Fleming – is pleased to announce the 2024 US Team to compete at the FISU World University Orienteering Championships in Bankso, Bulgaria from August 1st-5th, 2024. The WUOC competition is held every other year.

Congratulations to this year’s WUOC Team!!

WUOC Men

  • Keegan Harkavy
  • Thomas Laraia
  • Dylan Poe
  • Anthony (AJ) Riley
  • Danny Riley
  • Tyler Wilson
  • 1st Alternate: Shawn Mather
  • 2nd Alternate: Victor Frolenko

WUOC Women

  • Lily Addicott
  • Diana Aleksieva
  • Bridget Hall
  • Alex Merka
  • Oriana Riley
  • Grace Zoppi
  • 1st Alternate: Jessica Colleran
  • 2nd Alternate: Ava Suhocki
  • 3rd Alternate: Grace Suhocki

TeamUSA Announces 2024 JWOC Roster

The JWOC Selection Committee – Jon Torrance, Andrea Berger, Eric Bone, Ethan Childs, and Ioana Fleming – is pleased to announce the 2024 US Team to compete at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Pilsen, Czechia from June 30th-July7th, 2024.

Congratulations to this year’s JWOC Team!!

JWOC Women

  • Alex Merka
  • Astrid White
  • Danny Buchholz
  • Greta Leonard
  • Paige Suhocki
  • Zariah Zosel
  • 1st Alternate: Samantha Walker
  • 2nd Alternate: Ava Suhocki

JWOC Men

  • Ben Brady
  • Benjamin Conley
  • Ian Dunlap
  • Jackson Rupe
  • Ludvig Hagwall
  • Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck
  • 1st Alternate: Ben Cooper
  • 2nd Alternate: Collin Thompson

2024 WOC Selection Criteria Announced

The 2024 Sprint World Orienteering Championships (WOC) will be hosted in Edinburgh, Scotland, from July 12-16, 2024.

Orienteering USA’s WOC Review Panel (RP – Peggy Dickison, Tyra Christopherson, Jeff Saeger, Glen Tryson) will choose up to 3 (three) male and 3 (three) female athletes to represent the USA at WOC, in addition to the one male and one female already selected by winning the NAOC sprint in 2023. Using the same selection criteria, the WOC RP may also choose alternates who will step in, should the need arise.

There will be two official Team Trials.

  • Sprint Scotland will be held in Glenrothes, Scotland (north of Edinburgh), on May 4-5, 2024. This event consists of three sprint races, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. All three are individual start races.
  • Sprint Storrs will be held in Storrs, Connecticut (University of Connecticut) on Saturday, 11 May 2024. This event consists of two sprint races, an individual start race in the morning and a mass-start race in the afternoon.
  • Note to Petitioners: Petitioners who cannot attend either Team Trials events will be required to register for the Sprint Storrs Team Trials as Non-Compete and fill in the declaration page.

To be considered a candidate for 2024 WOC Team Selection, a WOC candidate must meet the WOC eligibility requirements and also declare their intent to seek selection to the team.

Candidates should refer to the Full WOC 2024 Selection Criteria document which can be found in the Orienteering USA Library.