Category: US Team

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bJOfDNIvDs

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

Update on JWOC 2021 Dates, Team Selection, and Policies

JWOC 2021 has been postponed to September 5-10, 2021 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on preparations for the event.  The deadline for the submission of petitions for selection to the US JWOC team has been extended to June 5, 2021 with the announcement of the team to be made no later than June 15, 2021.  Team selection criteria can be found here.

The IOF has announced general COVID-19 policies to minimize risk at world orienteering events.  These policies mean that the JWOC experience will be very different this year.  All participants at JWOC 2021 will enter and remain in an Event Bubble dependent upon negative PCR tests and there will be strict rules to avoid contacts outside the Bubble and minimize contacts within the Bubble.  OUSA will be upholding all of the IOF and local organizer’s COVID-19 restrictions.  Please take these policies into consideration when deciding to submit a petition for JWOC team membership.

JWOC 2021 – Moving to September

Following a meeting on April 23, 2021, the IOF made the following announcement regarding the 2021 JWOC:

“The organisers and regional authorities in Turkey have requested that the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) 2021 be postponed from July to new dates in September 2021. The July dates are no longer possible due to planning difficulties caused by the pandemic. The new dates will be confirmed next week.”

Following confirmation of the new dates for JWOC, JTESC will publish a new deadline for the petitions and team announcement, as well as added information regarding any IOF or JWOC Covid-19 pertinent information. The current IOF Bulletin Covid-19 may be found here: https://orienteering.sport/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/iof-covid-19-bulletin-10-feb-2021.pdf.

2021 Georgia O-Fest Video Updates

A couple of videos from the Georgia Orienteering Festival (GAOC) held last weekend have been uploaded to the OUSA Facebook and YouTube channels. The first video is a minimally edited assemblage of clips featuring OUSA Junior Team members in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPGjH67b4Vo

The second video highlights the Southeastern Interscholastic Orienteering Championships held in conjunction with the O-Fest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1pa11XbOgc

In addition, Orienteering USA has uploaded much of the raw, unedited video footage to a Google Drive for downloading by schools, clubs and individuals to utilize in creating derivative media for publicity. The majority of clips are sorted/titled by date, school, bib# and name to facilitate identifying useful content. Any media used should credit/tag Orienteering USA. The content in these folders will be deleted at the end of April, so grab any clips you want now.

2021 Junior Team Announced

Orienteering USA’s Junior Team Executive Steering Committee (JTESC) is pleased to announce the athletes in the National Junior Program for 2021. Due to the lack of competition in 2020, no changes to team placement into the Junior National Team (JNT) were made at this time. Applications to the Junior Development Team (JDT) are accepted year round. JDT athletes who applied to be considered for the JNT may be moved up as they reach JNT performance targets.

2021 Junior National Team
Diana Aleksieva, QOC
Jessica Colleran, COC
Christiane Fletcher, GAOC
Bridget Hall, NEOC
Keegan Harkavy, NEOC
Kirsten Mayland, DVOA
Alex (Alexis) Merka, QOC
AJ (Anthony) Riley, DVOA
David Runde, MNOC, KristiansandOK
Emilia  Schmidt, QOC, Tampereen Pyrintö
Adrian Vartia, OK Löftan Sweden


Junior Development Team
Max Ahmed, QOC
Jack Barkley, COC
Ben Brady, COC
Ian Dunlap, OLOU
Mori  Finlayson-Johnecheck, NEOC/CSU
Luke Menzie, COC
Jasper Ralinovsky, OCIN
Oriana Riley, DVOA
Zoe Sibthorp, COC
Ava Suhocki, DVOA
Aubree Winters, COC

2021 JWOC Team Selection Criteria

The JWOC Selection Committee will choose up to six young male and six young female athletes to represent the USA at the 2021 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) in Turkey. In order to be considered a candidate for 2021 JWOC Team Selection, a junior (born in 2001 or later) must meet the IOF eligibility requirements and also declare his/her intent to seek selection by petition.

Because of the uncertainty pertaining to the international organization of and ability to travel to JWOC created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the inability to safely schedule fair JWOC Team Trials as well as the lack of orienteering competitions in 2020, the 2021 JWOC Team Selection will proceed by petition for all athletes who wish to be considered for the team.

The petition shall be evaluated by the Selection Committee using the Team Selection Reviewing Rubrics. The completed petition should include as much of the requested information as possible, and be sent to ousajuniorprogram@nullorienteeringusa.org by May 5, 2021. The Selection Committee will announce the team on or before May 10, 2021.

The 2021 JWOC Selection Criteria document and rubrics may be accessed on the Orienteering USA website.

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.