Category: WOC Team

2025 WOC Team Selected

The WOC Review Panel is pleased to announce the team to represent the US at the 2025 World Orienteering Championships (WOC) in Kuopio, Finland, from 7 to 12 July. Regional champs in the Middle and Long races—for North Americans, last summer’s NAOC races—earn personal starts in those WOC races. Joseph Barrett thus earned a long start at this year’s WOC, and Ali Crocker earned both a middle and a long start.

2025 WOC Team

Men:

  • Joseph Barrett
  • Ricardo Schaniel
  • Anthony Riley
  • Thomas Laraia
  • 1st alternate, Greg Ahlswede
  • 2nd alternate, Anton Salmenkylä

Women:

  • Ali Crocker
  • Lily Addicott
  • Alison Campbell
  • Evalin Brautigam
  • 1st alternate, Bridget Hall
  • 2nd alternate, Siri Christopherson

Congratulations to all the athletes! We wish them the best of luck in the European forests.

Peggy Dickison, National Team ESC Chair & Chair of WOC Review Panel
WOC Review Panel: Glen Tryson, Jeff Saeger, Ioana Flemming, Peggy Dickison

Western States Champs / US Team Trials

Feb 28-Mar 2, 2025

Host: Bay Area Orienteering Club

Venues:

  • Friday: Presidio, San Francisco, CA
  • Saturday & Sunday: Calero County Park, San Jose, CA

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

Results, Photos, and Maps

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.

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.

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
Evalin Brautigam
Bridget Hall
Alison Campbell
Lily Addicott
Oriana Riley
1st alternate
Paige Suhocki
2nd Alternate
Joe Barrett
Thomas Laraia
Keegan Harkavy
Ricardo Schaniel
Anthony (AJ) Riley
1st Alternate

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.

2023 TeamUSA WOC Team Announced

The TeamUSA WOC Selection Committee (Jeff Saeger, Glen Tryson, Peggy Dickison) is pleased to announce the 2023 US WOC Team for the 2023 World Orienteering Championships to be held in Flims Laax, Switzerland in mid July. Here’s the lineup:

April 29 Update: Bridget Hall, originally selected for the WOC ’23 team, secured a summer internship and has withdrawn from the team. Evalin Brautigam, originally selected as 1st Alternate, has been moved into Bridget’s spot on the team roster.

MENWOMEN
Thomas CurigerAli Crocker
Danny RileyEvalin Brautigam*
Joe BarrettSyd Fisher
Anton SalmenkylaIzzy Bryant
1st Alternate: Greg Ahlswede1st Alternate: Alison Campbell
2nd Alternate: AJ RileyDeclined: Bridget Hall*

The competition was tough, the results were often very tight, and we saw some impressive results. This year saw the most competitive Team Trials in many years, which meant that it was harder than ever to make it on to the Team.

Congratulations to all of you who were selected to represent TeamUSA on the world stage!

Peggy Dickison, on behalf of the WOC Selection Committee

Thomas
Danny
Joe
Anton
Greg
1st alternate
Anthony (AJ)
2nd alternate
Ali
Evalin
Syd
Izzy
Alison
1st alternate*
Bridget
declined*

43rd Annual West Point NRE Event Recap

including 2023 WOC Team Trials

April 15-16, 2023

  • Host: United States Military Academy Orienteering Club
  • Venue(s):
    • Middle: Lake Popolopen, West Point, NY
    • Sprint: Camp Buckner, West Point, NY
    • Long: Jackie Jones, Harriman SP, NY
  • Event Director: CDT Tyler Wilson
    • Registrar: CDT Gregory Kies
    • Course Setters:
      • Middle: CDT Shawn Mather
      • Sprint: CDT Holden Sopoti
      • Long: CDT Neal Anderson
      • Course Vetting: CDT Paul Bruce
    • Course Consultant: Jordan Laughlin
  • Event Website

Results

Photos & Media

West Point to Host ’23 WOC Team Trials

Now that the JWOC Team Trials are done and the JWOC 2023 Team has been announced, its time to set our sights on the WOC 2023 Team Trials which will be held this coming weekend at the 43rd West Point National Ranking Event.  Since last year’s WOC was a Sprint WOC, this year’s World Orienteering Championships will focus on the forest disciplines of Middle, Long & Relay. 

WOC 2023 will be held in Flims Laax, Switzerland from July 11-16.  A strong field on both the men’s and women’s side are vying for coveted spots on this year’s team.  In order to properly challenge our athletes, the long TT course for the women will be approximately 9.6km with 405m of climb and the men’s TT course will be 13.7km with over 500m of climb on the optimal route.  And this is at West Point folks, so it will be a truly epic battle.  The M-21+ and F-21+ winners for each race (Middle & Long) will earn an automatic spot on the WOC Team, as well as the athletes with the best combined results.  You can read the full WOC Selection Criteria here.

Let’s take a look at who is currently entered, starting with the women. Names in bold type are current members of the US National Team and they are ordered by their current Eventor World Ranking score. Good to see some Junior Squad members stepping up to take a shot.

Over on the men’s side, an interesting mix including three of our european based TeamUSA athletes. Our top two contenders both reside in Switzerland where WOC will be held, but not far behind them are perennial local favorites Greg Ahlswede and Joe Barrett, both of whom have a pretty good handle on what West Point may throw at them, particularly in the long. They will be a couple of interesting races to watch for sure. Who do you think is going to come out on top?

Guess the WOC Team Members!

See how well you can predict who will make the US Team to compete in the World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland this summer! 

Pick four Team members and one alternate of each gender. (This may not be the eventual team size.)

Donations are encouraged, but not required. To donate, go to the Donate page on the OUSA website, and select “4 TEAM USA:National Foot-O Team.” Funds will help the team with WOC expenses. 

Donation Form (orienteeringusa.org)

The person/people who most closely choose the Team members will get a shout-out in the OUSA Newsletter, (and maybe a map souvenir from WOC).

DEADLINE: please submit this form by 8 AM EDT, 15 April, 2023. 

2023 WOC Team Trials

The 43rd West Point NRE will host the US Team Trials for the 2023 World Orienteering Championships for the second consecutive year. This year’s WOC will be held in Switzerland, 11-16 July. Following last year’s inaugural Sprint WOC, this year is back to a forest-race WOC, with a Middle, Long, and Relay. Therefore, only the Middle and Long races at the USMAOC event will be used as Trials qualifiers.

The M21 and F21 winners for each race will earn a spot on the WOC Team, as well as the athletes with the best combined results. The Review Panel (Peggy Dickison, Jeff Saeger, and Glen Tryson) will name the remaining athletes, based on a scoring list and petitions. Athletes who wish to be considered for the WOC Team but are unable to compete at West Point must register for the event, selecting “Yes, Competing for selection to the US WOC Team” and “Not participating” under the Race Selection section.

See the Selection Criteria below for more information.

Peggy Dickison
ESC Chairman/Review Panel Chair

US WOC 2023 Team Selection Criteria

  • The winner of each Middle race (M/F-21+) will receive automatic selection.
  • The winner of each Long race (M/F-21+) will receive automatic selection.
  • The athlete with the best combined results in each race (M/F-21+) will receive automatic selection.

Additional information and caveats:

  • At least two athletes of each gender will receive automatic spots; if one athlete wins both races (and therefore also has the top combined result), the second automatic spot goes to the athlete finishing 2nd in the Middle race (because we have more starts in the Middle and Relay).
  • If either the winner of the Middle or Long is also first on the scoring list (a combination of the results of the two races, normalized to be of equal weight), only two automatic spots will be awarded, with the remaining members selected by the Review Panel.
  • Athletes who wish to be considered for the 2023 WOC Team but are unable to compete at West Point must still register for the event, selecting “Yes, Competing for selection to the US WOC 2023 Team” and “Not participating” under the Race Selection section.
  • Remaining members of the team will be named by the Review Panel, using petitions, the scoring list, and Trials results.
  • Any athlete may submit a petition, within an hour of the final race finish, and must explain why they could not attend the Trials, had a subpar result, or were affected by an organizational issue not of their making.
  • There must be at least three declared and eligible athletes competing in a race for there to be an automatic selection.
  • The NT will send at least three athletes of each gender, but no more than 6. Most likely is 3-4 athletes of each gender. This year, the US has 8 or 9 race starts for the women (3 middle, 2 long, 3 relay, and potentially a 4th middle [personal, ie cannot be transferred] start based on the top North American on the IOF ranking list as of 11 May), and 7 starts for the men (3 middle, 1 long, 3 relay, and potentially a 4th middle).
    – As of 4 March, the top North Americans are an American woman and a Canadian man.
  • If anyone with a personal start wants to compete in additional races at WOC, they must either attend the Trials or submit a petition.