US Team Trials ’21

May 7-9, 2021

Race director Peggy Dickison

Congratulations to the automatic qualifiers for the WOC Team going to the Czech Republic later this year. The remainder of the Team will be determined after the Czech selection races next month. Previous US WOC Teams can be viewed in the OUSA Library.

Automatic WOC Team Qualifiers: Anthony Riley, Angelica Riley, Joseph Barrett & Sydney Fisher

Automatic Qualifiers:

Winners of the Sprint:
– Anthony Riley
– Angelica Riley
Winners of the Middle +Long (normalized)
– Joseph Barrett
– Sydney Fisher

Highlight Video

Friday Results

Sprint Blue4.14km22C
PlaceNameClubTime
1Anthony RileyDVOA17:52
2Michael LaraiaMNOC18:37
3Will EngerCOC19:13
4Sergei RyzhkovDVOA19:14
5Eric BoneCOC20:11
6William HawkinsWCOC20:31
7Danny RileyCAOC21:22
8Wyatt RileyDVOA21:38
9Greg AhlswedeDVOA21:48
10Joseph BarrettQOC21:55
11Gheorghe FalaBOK25:11
12Patrick ShannonDVOA26:28
Sprint Red3.4km, 60m19C
PlaceNameClubTime
1Angelica RileyDVOA25:36
2Diana AleksievaQOC25:54
3Alexis MerkaQOC29:45

Saturday Results

Middle Blue6.0 km 55 m13 C
PlaceNameClubTime
1Eric BoneCOC37:44
2Joseph BarrettQOC39:32
3Sergei RyzhkovDVOA44:31
4Anthony RileyDVOA47:08
5Boris GranovskiyGRIZO47:51
6Greg AhlswedeDVOA50:11
7Gheorghe FalaBOK53:00
8Wyatt RileyDVOA53:27
9Danny RileyCAOC55:09
10William HawkinsWCOC56:09
11Michael LaraiaMNOC1:05:28
12Will EngerCOC1:06:10
13Patrick ShannonDVOA1:07:52
Middle Red5.3 km 55 m13 C
PlaceNameClubTime
1Sydney FisherQOC53:27
2Angelica RileyDVOA57:47
3Alexis MerkaQOC1:16:32

Sunday Results

Long Blue (Men)11.4 km 410 m23 C
PlaceNameClubTime
1Barrett, JosephQOC1:17:59
2Ahlswede, GregDVOA1:19:29
3Riley, AnthonyDVOA1:20:39
4Enger, WillCOC1:24:19
5Bone, EricCOC1:25:06
6Laraia, MichaelMNOC1:26:33
7Hawkins, WilliamWCOC1:31:18
8Granovskiy, BorisGRIZO1:35:18
9Riley, DannyCAOC1:36:06
10Riley, WyattDVOA1:42:48
Shannon, PatrickDVOAdnf
Regular Blue (Women)9.7 km 355 m20 C
PlaceNameClubTime
1Fisher, SydneyQOC1:47:32
2Riley, AngelicaDVOA2:05:51
3Aleksieva, DianaQOC2:16:10
4Merka, AlexisQOC2:27:53

Photo Credits: Wyatt Riley, Nadim Ahmed, Clinton Morse

2021 Senior Team Announced

The Orienteering USA Executive Steering Committee (ESC) is pleased to announce the Senior Team for 2021. Due to the lack of competition in 2020, no changes to team placement were made in the Elite & Performance squads. The Development squad welcomes three new members: Bridget Hall (NEOC), A.J. Riley (DVOA) and Danny Riley (CAOC).

2021 US Senior Team

Elite
Greg Ahlswede
Ali Crocker
Morten Jorgenson
Anton Salmenkyla

Performance
Giacomo Barbone
Tori Borish
Alison Campbell
Will Enger
Syd Fisher


Development
Joe Barrett
Evalin Brautigam
Tyra Christopherson
Julia Doubson
Bridget Hall*
Michael Laraia
Thomas Laraia
A.J. Riley*
Danny Riley*
* denotes new members

Previous years teams can be found in the OUSA Library.

2021 US Senior Team applications available

Applications are now being accepted for the US National Foot-O Team for the 2021 season. Please note that valid Safesport certification is required to be named to the team. Orienteering USA covers the cost of Safesport training as a member benefit.

Download the 2021 Senior National Team Application
Download the 2021 Athlete Agreement

Completed applications, including the Athlete Agreement, are due by January 2nd, 2021 and should be sent to Peggy Dickison at pdickison at comcast dot net.

Senior Team Announces New Coach

The US Senior Team has recently named elite Estonian orienteer Lauri Sild as their new head coach.  Lauri comes to this role with a strong background in coaching and exercise science as well as an impressive record of performances on the world stage both at JWOC & WOC.  He runs for Koovee and was a member (3rd leg) of the winning team at the 2018 Jukola Relay in Lahti-Hollola. 

Stay tuned for more updates from the Senior Team in the months ahead!

Announcing the 2020 U.S. National Team

The Selection Committee* has named the following athletes to the U.S. Senior National Team:

Elite: Greg Ahlswede, Alison Crocker, Morten Jørgensen, Anton Salmenkylä

Performance: Giacomo Barbone, Eric Bone, Tori Borish, Alison Campbell, Will Enger, Sydney Fisher, Åsne Skram Trømborg

Development: Joseph Barrett, Brigitte Bordelon, Evalin Brautigam, Julia Doubson, Martin Heir, Michael Laraia, Thomas Laraia, Tyra Christopherson

Senior Team selection is based on the following criteria:

  • Senior Elite Team: athletes who consistently produce top-level US results in F21 or M21
  • Senior Performance Team: athletes who frequently produce strong US results in F21 or M21, at or near the level of the Elite Team
  • Senior Development Team: athletes who have demonstrated potential to reach Performance and/or Elite level with further training and experience.

Congratulations to all the athletes!

*The Selection Committee consists of Peggy Dickison, Cristina Luis, Glen Tryson, and Eric Weyman.

2020 U.S. WOC Team Selection

Team Trials Rules and WOC Team Selection Criteria are now posted for the 2020 Sprint WOC to be held in Denmark in July.

U.S. (and Canadian) Team Trials will take place at the Sage Stomp, (link removed) May 16-18, 2020, in south-central British Columbia, Canada.

2020 National Team Applications

Application to the National Team is open to all athletes who meet the requirements of the Athlete Agreement and return a signed copy along with the application.  Please note the January 1 deadline for both documents. Documents are linked from the National Team page.

Senior Team Coaching Position

 The U.S. Team is looking for a coach to review individual training plans, training logs, be a general source of information on elite orienteering, and help provide a basic communication structure for the team. The position would be as a private contractor with Orienteering USA.

If you are interested in pursuing this possibility, select the PDF document below to see more.

2019-2020_US_senior_coach_position_description-application

Team USA At WOC

Men’s middle distance final. Click on map for larger image
Åsne in action in the middle distance. 
Anton sprinting to the finish.

The biggest event of the international racing scene, the World Orienteering Championships, took place in Norway in the middle of August. Team USA had some outsanding performances. Anton Salmenkylä (CSU) finished 37th in the middle distance final, just over 8 minutes behind the world champion Olav Lundanes of Norway. This was the best U.S. men’s middle distance result at WOC of all time, improving on Brian May’s 44th place from WOC 2003. The men’s relay team (Morten Jorgensen, Anton Salmenkylä, Greg Ahlswede) ran very well, finishing as the 20th nation – the best U.S. men’s result since 1991, when considerably fewer countries participated in WOC.

Morten in the relay (photos by Matias Salonen)
Ali in the long distance

The women’s team also had strong results, led by Alison Crocker’s 41st place in the long distance and Åsne Skram Tromborg’s 49th place in the middle distance. As a result of the U.S. women’s successful performances during WOC, Team USA has been promoted to “Tier 2 nation” status, meaning that we will be able to field at least two women in the long distance final in the next forest WOC (2021 in Czechia). Note that WOC in 2020 in Denmark will only be contested in the sprint distances, with subsequent WOCs alternating between “forest” and “urban” every other year.

You can see full WOC results and maps here.

US Team Results at World Orienteering Championships 2019

Middle Qualification, August 13

  • MEN
    • Heat 1
      1. Olav Lundanes (NOR), 24:20; 2. Daniel Hubmann (SUI), 25:12; 3. Oleksandr Kratov (UKR), 26:25; 20. Anton Salmenkylä 30:25; 29. Michael Svoboda (CAN), 37:39; 35. Jordan Laughlin, 44:41
    • Heat 2
      1. Lucas Basset (FRA), 24:49; 2. Magne Daehli (NOR), 25:40; 3. J.V. Guildys (LIT), 25:53; 27. Robert Graham (CAN), 33:45, 30. Eric Bone, 34:41
    • Heat 3
      1. Matthias Kyburz (SUI), 25:21; Gustav Bergman (SWE), 25:38; Aleksi Niemi (FIN), 26:17; 23. Jan Erik Naess (CAN), 31:39, 34. Greg Ahlswede, 37:54
       
  • WOMEN
    • Heat 1
      1. Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg (NOR), 28:59; 2. Natalia Gemperly (RUS), 29:28; 3. Evely Kaasiku (EST), 30:13; 23. Emma Waddington (CAN), 39:27, 33. Sydney Fisher, 61:14
    • Heat 2
      1. Kamilla Olaussen (NOR), 29:16; 2. Lina Strand (SWE), 29:23; 3. Marika Teini (FIN), 29:57; 24. Åsne Skram Trømborg, 39:39; 27. Pia Blake (CAN), 41:56
    • Heat 3
      1. Cecilie Friberg Klysner (DEN), 28:45; 2. Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 28:51; 3. Marianne Andersen (NOR), 29:20; 14. Emily Kemp (CAN), 34:58; 29. Alison Campbell, 49:40; 32. Jennifer MacKeigan (CAN), 71:26

Commentary from Boris Granovskiy (U.S. National Team member):

The 2019 World Orienteering Championships (WOC) got underway today in Ostfold, Norway with the middle distance qualification race.

This year’s WOC is the first forest-only WOC since before the introduction of the sprint discipline in 2001. Forest and sprint WOCs are set to alternate annually starting this year.

In the middle distance qualifiers, top 15 competitors in each heat qualified for the finals outright. Additionally, the top runner from each country that did not have an automatic qualifier also made it through to the finals, up to a total of 60 finalists.

The top U.S. performance of the day was by Anton Salmenkylä (CSU / Helsingin Suunnistajat), who finished 20th in his heat, less than 2 minutes from qualifying outright. He will race in the middle distance finals on Friday along with Åsne Skram Trømborg, who had the best U.S. result on the women’s side, finishing 24th in her heat.

The full results can be found here, and the U.S. results are summarized below.

WOC continues tomorrow with the Long Distance final. Racing for the U.S. are Jordan Laughlin, Morten Jorgensen, Syd Fisher, and Ali Crocker. You can follow the races live here. Go Team USA!

Plc    Name                  Heat       Time    Time behind leader
20     Anton Salmenkylä       Men 1     30:25        +06:05
24     Åsne Skram Trømborg  Women 2     39:39        +10:23
29     Alison Campbell      Women 3     49:40        +20:55
30     Eric Bone              Men 2     34:41        +09:52
33     Sydney Fisher        Women 1     61:14        +32:15
34     Gregory Ahlswede       Men 3     37:54        +12:33
35     Jordan Laughlin        Men 1     44:41        +20:21

Long Final, August 14

  • MEN
    • 1. Olav Lundanes (NOR), 1:30:09
      2. Kasper Fosser (NOR), 1:31:48
      3. Daniel Hubmann (SUI), 1:33:07
      59. Morten Jorgensen, 2:07:18 (+37:09)
      60. Jordan Laughlin, 2:09:10 (+39:01)

      68. Will Critchley (CAN), 2:24:39 (+54:30)
  • WOMEN
    • 1. Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 1:09:00
      2. Lina Strand (SWE), 1:15:16
      3. Simona Aebersold (SUI), 1:15:50
      41. Ali Crocker, 1:37:27 (+28:27)
      62. Syd Fisher, 2:10:51 (+1:01:51)
      (Canada’s Emma Waddington dns)

Commentary from Boris:

On Wednesday the first medals of WOC 2019 were handed out, and long distance world champions were crowned. For the fourth year in a row on both the men’s and women’s sides, the champions are Olav Lundanes (Norway) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden). Olav won an exciting close race, defeating teammate (and still junior!) Kaspar Fosser by 1:39, while Tove won in dominant fashion, finishing a whole 6:16 ahead of silver medalist Lina Strand (Sweden).

Team USA had four competitors, and four solid performances. On the women’s side, Ali Crocker held the lead when she finished and ended up in 41st place. Sydney Fisher ended up 62nd in her first WOC long distance race. Among the men, Morten Jorgensen finished just ahead of Jordan Laughlin, as they took places 59 and 60.

You can read the race report on World Of O, and see the full results on the WOC website.

Follow Team USA on Facebook (@usorienteeringteam) or Instagram, as they have been great at posting photos and videos direct from the races!

Middle Final, August 16

  • MEN
    • 1. Olav Lundanes (NOR), 34:18
      2. Gustav Bergman (SWE), 34:29
      3. Magne Daehli (NOR), 34:47
      37. Anton Salmenkylä, 42:29 (+8:11)
      42. Jan Erik Naess (CAN), 43:15 (+8:57)
  • WOMEN
    • 1. Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 38:20
      2. Simona Aebersold (SUI), 38:25
      3. Natalia Gemperle (RUS), 40:05
      26. Emily Kemp (CAN), 44:48 (+6:28)
      49. Åsne Skram Trømborg, 55:47 (+17:27)

Commentary from Boris:

Today at WOC was the middle distance final. The story at the top of the leaderboard was the same as for the long distance, with Olav Lundanes (Norway) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) becoming double gold medalists, albeit by much smaller margins than on Wednesday. Lundanes held off Sweden’s Gustav Bergman by 11 seconds, while Tove had just five seconds to spare in her win over Switzerland’s Simona Aebersold. (Places 3-7 were about 1:30 behind Simona, but within 7 seconds of each other!)

On the women’s side, Team USA was represented by  Åsne Skram Trømborg, who was in the lead early on and finished in an excellent 49th place. Running later in the day, Anton Salmenkylä did even better, finishing 37th, just over 8 minutes behind the world champion. This was the best U.S. men’s middle distance result at WOC of all time, improving on Brian May’s 44th place from WOC 2003. Congratulations Anton and Åsne on some great races! You can see full results here and maps and route choices here.

Tomorrow WOC concludes with the relay races. The U.S. teams, in running order, are as follows:

Women
Alison Crocker
Åsne Skram Trømborg
Alison Campbell

Men
Morten Jørgensen
Anton Salmenkylä
Greg Ahlswede

You can see the full start list and follow the race live here. Go Team USA!!

Relay, August 17

  • WOMEN
    • 1. Sweden, 1:35:49 (Strand, Alexandersson, Ohlsson)
      2. Switzerland, 1:35:53 (Hauswirth, Aebersold, Jakob)
      3. Russian Federation, 1:36:56 (Rudnaya, Riabkina, Gemperle)
      18. Canada, 1:58:24 (+22:35) (Waddington, Kemp, Blake)
      22. United States, 2:14:41 (+38:52) (Crocker, Trømborg, Campbell)
  • MEN
    • 1. Sweden, 1:40:42 (Runesson, Svensk, Bergman)
      2. Finland, 1:42:16 (Niemi, Kuukka, Kurmula)
      3. France, 1:42:25 (Rio, Tranchand, Basset)
      20. United States, 2:01:54 (+21:12) (Jørgensen, Salmenkylä, Ahlswede)
      29. Canada, 2:18:48 (+38:06) (Naess, Graham, Svoboda)