Announcing the 2024 US National Orienteering Team

The Selection Committee (Peggy Dickison, Eric Weyman, and Matt Smith) is pleased to announce the 2024 US National Orienteering Team.

The committee carefully examined each of the many applications (57) to determine Team readiness and squad placement. Several 2023 Team members chose not to apply this year, a few narrowly missed making the Team, and some new faces have emerged.

Placements were based primarily on the Selection Criteria, weighing OUSA and IOF rankings highest, along with head-to-head competition and other known factors. In general, we were most flexible/inclusive with the Juniors, who we understand are still improving and have less-consistent results; less flexible/inclusive with the Performance Squad; and least flexible/inclusive with the Elite Squad.

With several athletes on the cusp of qualifying for the Team, we expect to add members after the spring season. We are excited to see our team continue to attract excellent athletes. Welcome to four new athletes to the Junior Squad! Be sure to check the full roster with athlete photos, bios and links on the Orienteering USA National Team web page

2024 US National Orienteering Team

  • Elite Squad
    • Greg Ahlswede – DVOA
    • Joseph Barrett – QOC
    • Tori Borish – RMOC
    • Evalin Brautigam – WCOC
    • Alison Campbell – DVOA, STAG (Scotland)
    • Alison Crocker – CROC
    • Thomas Curiger – OK Orion (Jämsjö, Sweden)
    • Sydney Fisher – EMPO
    • Bridget Hall – NEOC
    • Keegan Harkavy – NEOC
    • Anthony Riley – DVOA
    • Danny Riley – NEOC
    • Ricardo Schaniel – Bussola OK (Switzerland)
  • Performance Squad
    • Lily Addicott – GAOC
    • Diana Aleksieva – QOC
    • Eric Bone – COC
    • Julia Doubson – BAOC
    • Thomas Laraia – MNOC, Edinburgh University Orienteering Club
    • Shawn Mather – USMAOC
    • Kirsten Mayland – DVOA
    • Annika Mihata – COC
    • Oriana Riley – DVOA
  • Junior Squad
    • Ben Brady – COC / GrizO
    • Anna Campbell – NEOC
    • Ben Conley – New Member! – Cascade Orienteering Club / Grizzly Orienteering
    • Ben Cooper – COC
    • Ian Dunlap – OLOU
    • Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck – NEOC
    • Ludvig Hagwall – New Member! – Järla Orientering (Stockholm, Sweden)
    • Greta Leonard – COC
    • Alex Merka – QOC
    • Jackson Rupe – COC
    • Emilia Schmidt – QOC
    • Zoe Sibthorp – COC
    • Ava Suhocki – DVOA
    • Paige Suhocki – DVOA
    • Samantha Walker – New Member! – Quantico Orienteering Club
    • Astrid White – New Member! – Grizzly Orienteering / OK Linné (Uppsala, Sweden)
    • Zariah Zosel – COC / GrizO

2023 US National Team Announced

The Selection Committee of Peggy Dickison, Eric Weyman, and Matt Smith are pleased to announce the 2023 US National Orienteering Team.

Placements were based primarily on the Selection Criteria, including OUSA ranking scores, IOF ranking scores, and head-to-head competition. In general, we were most flexible/inclusive with the Juniors, who we understand are still improving and have less consistent results; less flexible/inclusive with the Performance Squad; and least flexible/inclusive with the Elite Squad.
 
We are excited to see our team grow, with two athletes returning to the Team after breaks, and six Juniors new to the Team.

2023 TeamUSA Elite Squad

2023 TeamUSA Performance Squad

2023 TeamUSA Junior Squad

TeamUSA welcomes Thomas Curiger to the National Team

The Executive Steering Committee is excited to announce the addition of Thomas Curiger to the Elite Squad of the National Team. Thomas is a dual Swiss-US citizen, living in Switzerland. His clubs are OLC Kapreolo (Zurich) and OK Orion (Jämsjö, Sweden). He began orienteering at age 8 and ten years later was called up to the Swiss Junior Team winning gold in the sprint and relay, and silver in the middle and long at JWOC in 2016. He competed at the 2017 World Cup in Latvia and 2018 World Cup in Czechia as a member of the Swiss Elite Squad before dropping off of the National Team in 2019.

Thomas will make his TeamUSA debut at this weekend’s World Cup Round 3 races in Davos, Switzerland. Joining Thomas at the World Cup races will be Elite Squad members Greg Ahlswede and Ricardo Schaniel.

Welcome aboard Thomas and good luck to all our TeamUSA athletes in Davos!

Photo of Thomas enroute to Middle Distance Gold at JWOC 2016.

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!!

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.

Announcing the 2022 US National Team

The Selection Committee for the US National Orienteering Team is excited to announce the new merged team for 2022! We got a taste of what is to come at the WRE/NRE races in Georgia a few weeks ago. Along with upcoming domestic NREs this year, we also have The World Games, Sprint WOC, JWOC, WUOC, and World Cup competitions to look forward to.

I’d like to thank my fellow Selection Committee members, Eric Weyman and Boris Granovskiy, for their knowledge and interest in the process of determining the 2022 Team.

Peggy Dickison
US National Team Selection Committee Chair


Elite Squad

  • Ali Crocker (CROC)
  • Anthony Riley (DVOA)
  • Anton Salmenkyla (FIN)
  • Eric Bone (COC)
  • Greg Ahlswede (DVOA)
  • Joseph Barrett (QOC)
  • Ricardo Schaniel (SWI)
  • Thomas Laraia (MNOC/SCOT)
  • Tori Borish (RMOC)

Performance Squad

  • Alison Campbell (DVOA/SCOT)
  • Danny Riley (CAOC)
  • Diana Aleksieva (QOC)
  • Evalin Brautigam (WCOC/AUSTRALIA)
  • Jessica Colleran (COC)
  • Julia Doubson (BAOC)
  • Michael Laraia (MNOC/GER)
  • Peter Zakrevski (BGR)
  • Sydney Fisher (QOC)

Junior Squad

  • Aidan Minto (ICO)
  • Alex Merka (QOC)
  • Annika Mihata (COC)
  • Ava Suhocki (DVOA)
  • Ben Brady (COC)
  • Bridget Hall (NEOC)
  • Emilia Schmidt (QOC/FIN)
  • Keegan Harkavy (NEOC)
  • Kirsten Mayland (DVOA)
  • Lily Addicott (GAOC)
  • Victor Frolenko (DVOA)
  • Zariah Zosel (COC)

US Team Merger Announced

Orienteering USA is excited to announce the merger of the US National Team, aka TeamUSA, with the US Junior National Team to create a single, unified US National Team beginning in 2022. This merger will provide a more streamlined pathway for competitive junior athletes interested in advancing to the elite level.

Starting in 2022, the National Team will consist of three tiers: the Elite Squad, the Performance Squad, and the Junior Squad. The Elite Squad will consist of those athletes who consistently perform at a high level and are deemed most likely to be selected for WOC, WC or TWG teams. Performance Squad athletes also perform at a high level but may not yet be consistent picks for international team selection. The Junior Squad will encompass all Team members age 20 and under but are fully eligible to take part in all team activities and to compete for spots on the international event teams. Team selection for races such as JWOC and WUOC will of course be subject to the age restrictions of the individual competitions.

Applications for the 2022 US National Team were announced in December and athletes interested in applying for this year’s team should have submitted their applications. The entry period for 2022 is now closed. Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement about the revised Junior Development Program which will include exciting new options for youth orienteers beyond the competitive track.

National Team Applications for 2022 now being accepted.

Starting in 2022, the National Team will consist of three tiers: the Elite Squad, the Performance Squad, and the Junior Squad. The Elite and Performance squads will reflect what the Selection Committee feels is the potential of an athlete making a WOC or WG team and the Junior Squad will be for all athletes born after 2001. Juniors are eligible to compete for and be a member of the WOC, World Cup, and/or World Game teams and to participate fully in all Team activities. Four of the nine members of our 2021 WOC Team were also Junior National Team members. If you normally run M/F 20 or M/F 21 then you are encouraged to apply to the National Team.

If you intend to apply to be a National Team member, please fill out the 2022 National Team Application Form as well as the 2022 Athlete Agreement Form and submit no later than January 8th, 2022.

WOC ’21 Recap

2021 was an odd year for international orienteering competition. With no World Championships in 2020 due to the pandemic, the organizers for 2021 scrambled to incorporate additional sprint disciplines into what was originally scheduled to be a ‘Forest’ program. With the pandemic still raging around the globe, many countries outside Europe elected not to send teams to WOC at all this year.

Due to issues related to family and coronavirus concerns, many of the standing US Team members elected to sit this year out as well. Veteran member Eric Bone (COC) is no stranger to WOC, making his 19th WOC appearance this year but teammates Sydney Fisher (WPOC) and Will Enger (COC) have each been to WOC once before this year. Three of the six WOC novices on this years team are currently members of the Orienteering USA Junior National Team as well (AJ, Diana & Alexis with Thomas Laraia from MNOC having recently aged out). So this year was looking to be a great experience building year and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Leading up to WOC2021, team member AJ Riley (DVOA) got a head start by competing at the WOC Selection races and training in Europe beginning in early June. Joe Barrett (QOC) arrived in the Czech Republic a few weeks later and put in some solid training time well in advance of WOC. Diana Aleksieva (QOC) and Alexis Merka (QOC) did some training at Kost and the mother/son duo of Angelica Riley (DVOA) and AJ did a final tuneup race at Bukovel in Ukraine.

TeamUSA officially came together July 1st for their official COVID tests, registration and check-in followed by some easy explorations of the surrounding areas and sprint venue. AJ was selected by the IOF to take over their Instagram feed for the day – detailing some of his training, taking questions and more. You can catch most of the 40+ posts over on our Facebook page – Part A & Part B.

More Media: Official Site | Diana & Alex Training at Kost | Team Riley at Bukovel


July 3rd – Sprint at Terezín

First up in the competition schedule was the individual sprint at Terezín, a former military fortress composed of citadel and adjacent walled garrison town. Organized as a series of 6 qualification heats in the morning and a final in the afternoon, the racing was fast and furious. Unfortunately none of our TeamUSA athletes qualified for the finals, but AJ did give a nice post-race interview for the IOF.

Men A26th – Will Enger17:19 (+4:15)
Men B26th – Thomas Laraia15:35 (+2:41)
Men C25th – AJ Riley15:46 (+2:48)
Women A24th – Diana Aleksieva22:31 (+10:01)
Women B– Angelica Rileymsp
Women C22nd – Alexis Merka25:01 (+11:11)
Sprint Qualifier Results

Alexis – “Everyone seemed so fast I felt like I had to push that fast too, slightly forgetting that I’m nowhere near being in such good shape as them… But running down the finish chute was an amazing feeling..

Thomas – “Annoyed about losing focus to 9 and missing where I was exiting the track and generally not taking enough time to look at all the options. Too many legs where that hurt.”

More Media: Official Site | Sprint Q Photos | Will Enger – Sprint Q Video | Thomas Laraia – Sprint Q Video | More Sprint Q Photos


July 4th – Sprint Relay at Doksy

Day 2 took us to the town centre of Doksy with its irregular street network. The terrain consisted of urban areas with paved streets and parkland with grass surfaces. Artificial barriers added navigational challenges to the course. The US Team for the sprint relay was composed entirely of WOC novices with Angelica taking the leadoff leg.

She started into town on the heels of some of the fastest women in the orienteering world including the likes of Tove Alexandersson(SWE) and Simona Aebersold (SUI). A clean run, but well behind the leaders, she handed off to son AJ for the second leg. Though largely running a solo race at this point, AJ ran strong and clean and was caught up by some of the 3rd leg leaders, being pulled through the spectator control hot on the heels of race leader Gustav Bergman from Sweden. AJ handed off to Joe Barrett who admitted sprints weren’t his strong suit, but he had a clean run nonetheless handing off to anchor leg Alexis Merka to round out the race. Unfortunately the team was over the official time limit, but all indicated that they enjoyed the racing regardless.

AJ – “Apparently I was on TV with my homie Gustav so that’s cool.”

Joe“Mostly running solo, just a few of the leg 4 women at the very end of the course. No major misses. Just hesitant in some circles, and felt I was reading really slow around all the fake fences at 9 and 10… It was a good low pressure way to start.”

Alexis – “It was a super fun race, I enjoyed the course and I’m definitely satisfied with it… So we got pretty much completely lapped, but that’s okay. I think that definitely helped me focus a lot more on my own race and on pacing myself better than I did yesterday. It was really fun.”

More Media: Official Site | Alternate Sprint Relay Movie | Sprint Relay Photos | Sprint Relay Map (pdf)


July 6th – Middle Distance at Smržovka

After a Rest Day, the action moved on to the Middle Distance races which took place in some challenging mountain terrain. Physically demanding steep slopes with granite boulders, cliffs with broken ground and some marshy areas were prominent features on this map. Morning qualification heats – top 15 in each heat plus additional spots for under-represented countries advancing to the final.

Men’s A29 – Eric Bone43:31 (+12:45)
Men’s B21 – Thomas Laraia38:26 (+10:14)
Men’s C29 – Joe Barrett44:06 (+15:22)
Women’s A26 – Diana Aleksieva1:15:38 (+45:43)
Women’s B– Angelica Rileymsp
Women’s C27 – Sydney Fisher44:11 (+13:39)
Middle Distance Qualification Race Results

Thomas started out with a great run in his heat, pretty much matching pace with the eventual heat winners through the first 4 controls, then hit a patch of green which slowed him down more than the stronger Euro runners who moved right through it. He finished only 10 minutes back which earned him a spot in the final. Team mate Eric Bone filmed a nice interview with Thomas after his run. Sydney was also happy with her race, losing a little time to small bobbles, but otherwise running cleanly to secure her spot in the women’s final.

Thomas: “Felt a bit of pressure and heart racing but it calmed down a lot through warming up and didn’t feel it anymore on the start, so good to see.Strength lacking, will prioritize being faster and stronger next time. Goals for future are qualifying for the final on merit alone”

Sydney: “Pretty satisfied with this race. Small bobble on 1. A lot of hesitation to 5. Overall pretty clean though. Legs didn’t feel too energetic, but no one (around me anyway) was moving that quickly up the hills.”

Moving on to the afternoon’s Middle Final:

Sydney: “Disappointed in this race. I had no flow – lots of time lost in the circle and a couple of big mistakes. I started too fast and was tired from running earlier. Good experience though! So many cameramen/drones out in the woods.

Thomas: “Mostly a pretty good race. Things I remember, fat mistake to 22 being too high and seeing some random crags…. Big pack going to 15, absolutely running on fumes there, wish I could’ve passed and kept attempting to catch people but I was pretty ruined. Nice to work as a group on 15-18 with Paul and somewhat Tomas.”

Men’s Final49 – Thomas Laraia1:02:54 (+23:23)
Women’s Final52 – Sydney Fisher1:18:21 (+40:09)
Middle Distance Final Results

More Media: Official Site | Middle Q Photos | Extra Middle Q Photos | Women’s Final Map (pdf) | Men’s Final Map (pdf)


July 8th – Forest Relay at Kokořínsko

After another rest day that saw much of the team getting more training done, the competition then moved to the continental sandstone terrain of Kokořínsko with its intricate morphology consisting of valleys and reentrants crowned by massive sandstone rock formations. This venue would host both the relay and Friday’s long competition. Running the women’s race were Sydney > Angelica > Alexis. Sydney got in a clean run before the rains began, but the day would only get darker and damper as it progressed.

Sydney – “In a normal year I would not run first, but I was excited for the experience. Goal was to stay with the pack through the arena, plan a route to 1, and then run my own race.The terrain was amazing and I felt good physically…Hopefully next time I’ll have the speed to stay with a pack.”

Alexis – “…worst race of my life. Not because of the rain or the dark, i liked that. Just the hills were seriously way over my ability and I was completely dying. The cameras gave me a few anxiety attacks, which really didn’t help… I’m still glad I have this experience. Everyone has to have their worst race someday, and frankly I’m kind of honored mine is a WOC race.”

By the time the Men’s Relay started the rain was coming down pretty good, but AJ navigated well and hung with the pack for quite a while, making an appearance on the first couple TV controls. Eric, concerned about increasingly dark conditions, switched places with Will and ran second wearing a headlamp in order to read the map in the dark woods with the intention of handing it off to Will at the exchange. Things didn’t exactly go to plan though…. The photo of Eric below isn’t a poorly exposed shot – it was just that dark out there…

AJ – “I love relays and honestly had a great time. Good to see that I can be competitive with the top guys if I was a bit more fit.”

Will – “This was enjoyable and the terrain was awesome – but the experience was clouded somewhat by me not being able to orienteer normally due to the impending darkness. … [Eric] ran the second leg with a headlamp, and was going to pass it to me, but then they made us mass start just after Eric passed through the arena, so I never got itStill a fun experience, but would’ve been a lot better under reasonable circumstances.

More Media: Official Site | Forest Relay Photos | Maps (pdf)


July 9th – Long Distance at Kokořínsko

Back at Kokořínsko on Friday for the Long Distance race utilizing the same arena as Thursday’s relay, and used a larger version of the long narrow relay map with the latter portion of each course coming back through the terrain used on Thursday. Long legs frequently offered up long trail runs to avoid the steep, intricate cliff areas and many runners took full advantage of them but some options were clearly better than others.

Men’s Long56 – Joe Barrett2:17:32 (+41:37)
Women’s Long54 – Sydney Fisher2:15:24 (+58:13)
Women’s Long55 – Diana Aleksieva3:07:10 (+1:49:59)
Long Distance Results

Joe – “Definitely the best race of the week for me. Read the cliffs in the circle pretty well. Only going down the wrong gap to #4, and then left #5 in the wrong direction without map aligned, and got blocked by an unexpected cliff... the cliffs did create route options to gain/lose time

Sydney“Time wasn’t great, but the course was a lot of fun. I just didn’t have the speed on the trails around, or the endurance… the course used a lot of rock passages, which was really neat… I like longs”

More Media: Official Site | Long Distance Photos | Women’s Map (pdf) | Men’s Map (pdf)

Summary of WOC ’21

Sydney – “It was a great experience and I am glad I got to race. The sandstone terrain was fantastic. I haven’t (yet) traveled many places to orienteer, but it was definitely one of my favorites… I had a couple of good races and a couple not so good. I was a lot closer (% time wise) to the leaders than I was in Norway so I’m moving in the right direction… Goals for next time are to be more fit (I have 2 years to get faster…seems like plenty of time) and to hopefully spend some time in relevant terrain more than a few days in advance.

Will – “I never thought I’d get a second opportunity to finally run a forest race at WOC, and it took a funky, unique year with a lot of our best guys injured or declining, so I’m thankful for the memorable experience in any case.

Joe – “Super fun time for my first WOC… Sprint Relay was alright, not a whole lot of expectations going in, clean race, no major misses… Long definitely my best race of the week, felt strong, good pace (for me) through most of it… could have looked ahead more on short legs, not just the long ones

Kevin Fisher (TeamUSA Official) – “I think things went pretty well considering my complete lack of training or expertise in this area. Everyone got to their races on time and to and from the airport, which was honestly my main goal… it was inspiring to spend time with all of these athletes, and really fun to watch them compete, hear their experiences in the woods, and talk about routes… I would highly recommend the WOC experience to anyone (wait for a normal year though!)”

So that wraps it up for this year. 2022 will feature a Sprint WOC on June 26-30 in Denmark and sprinting will also feature prominently when the world’s best come to Alabama two weeks later on July 7-17 for The World Games 2022. Mark your calendars and plan to come to Birmingham to be a part of the action as the US hosts the world’s best orienteers for what is sure to be some great competition!

Photos courtesy: Kevin Fisher, Dasa Merkova, Angelica Riley, Tomáš Bubela, Lukáš Budínský, Jiří Čech, Petr Kadeřávek & Petr Háp plus screenshots from official IOF & WOC2021 video feeds.

2021 US WOC Team Announced

The US Senior Team Review Panel, consisting of Peggy Dickison, Glen Tryson & Jeff Saeger, are pleased to announce this year’s team to compete at the World Orienteering Championships to be held in early July in the Czech Republic.

AJ Riley (pictured here competing in the middle distance race in Czechia on Saturday) earned an automatic spot at last month’s team trials. Since he was the only TeamUSA athlete competing at the Team Selection races this past weekend in Czechia that event became a non-factor in the selection, but the Review Panel elected to wait until after the Selection Races for other results.

The US Team Trials 2-day scoring list was used as the primary selection tool, but the panel also used the Team Trial Sprint results as well as 2019-2020 rankings and other race results. The Team Trials had some very strong results and some close scoring made the selection process interesting.

Men

  • AJ Riley – automatic selection
  • Joe Barrett – automatic selection
  • Eric Bone
  • Sergei Rhyzkov
  • Greg Ahlswede – declined
  • Will Enger
  • 1st alternate – Michael Laraia
  • 2nd alternate – Thomas Laraia

Women

  • Angelica Riley – automatic selection
  • Sydney Fisher – automatic selection
  • Diana Aleksieva
  • Alexis Merka
  • (no alternates)

Four TeamUSA athletes had previously earned personal starts for this year’s WOC. Unfortunately, all four have declined: Ali Crocker and Tori Borish for family reasons, and Morten Jorgensen and Anton Salmenkyla because of injuries. We wish them all the best and hope to see them back next year.

The ESC would also like to announce that Dasa Merka, a Czech native and Alex’s mom, has agreed to act as the Team Administrator. Congratulation to all the athletes that will represent the USA at the World Champs next month!!

Photo Credit: Petr Kadeřávek