Junior Nationals and Flying Pig XXVIII Event Recap

April 10-12, 2026

This year’s edition of the Flying Pig orienteering weekend was also host to Junior Nationals, where young orienteers competed in Interscholastic, Intercollegiate, and JROTC competitions.

  • Venues: Hueston Woods State Park (OH) and Mounds State Recreation Area (IN)

Team Champions

Teams of three to five athletes from each school earned points based on their results in Saturday and Sunday’s competition. This year there are several familiar names at the top of the lists, with the University of Montana taking back the IC Varsity trophy from USMAOC. The Interscholastic competition was once again dominated by the orienteers from Tahoma, in Washington state.

Congratulations to the champions from each school in the Interscholastic and Intercollegiate competitions!

  • Intercollegiate Varsity: University of Montana
  • Intercollegiate Junior Varsity: USMAOC
  • School Varsity: Tahoma
  • School Junior Varsity: Tahoma
  • School Intermediate: Summit Trail
  • Club Mixed: Evergreen Orienteers

For complete team results, including JROTC competitions, see here.

Results, Maps, and Photos

All photos in this post by Jeanette Dunlap.

Team results for the Interscholastic and Intercollegiate competitions.

  • Friday Middle at Hueston Woods
  • Saturday Classic at Mounds State Recreation Area
  • Sunday Classic at Mounds State Recreation Area

OUSA Welcomes New National Team Members

The US National Orientering Team welcomes new members following their selection to either the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) or Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) Teams. We are pleased to welcome back returning member Annika Mihata (COC) and to introduce new member Grace Suhocki (DVOA), both joining the Performance Squad. We also extend a warm welcome to Nate Dunlap (OLOU), who has been added to the Junior Squad.

YMP April Map of the Month

The Youth Mapping Program April Map of the Month is The Orchard School in Indianapolis, IN.

This map has been used in classes to teach students about reading maps and following a pre-determined route, and for the school’s orienteering club. One teacher said the best outcome of having the map is having “real topographical representation of The Orchard School property and grounds.”

Are you interested in having a map made of your school, camp, or youth-serving organization? Learn more about the program and apply here.

Announcing the 2026 EYOC Team!

Orienteering USA is pleased to announce the team to represent the US at the 2026 European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC), to be held in Slovenia June 25-27, 2026. EYOC is the premier international competition for orienteers in the M/W16 and M/W18 age classes, and a tremendous opportunity for our young competitors to test themselves on a larger stage.

Selected this year:

M16
Alex Eriksson
Mark Fey
Nate Dunlap*

M18
Erik Fey
Misha Biryukov*
Nathan Hinds
Samuel Sunko

W16
Josalyn Dunlap
Allison Coates
Sophie Neumann

W18
Anna Green*
Sophie Howes*
Danny Buchholz*
Rose Freedman-Riles

Several of the athletes were also selected to the JWOC team. Due to the close timing of these two competitions, athletes selected for both teams were required to choose only one. Those athletes selected for EYOC who have opted to participate in JWOC instead are noted by an asterisk. Note that Alex Eriksson was selected for both and opted for participation in EYOC.

Congratulations to all the athletes and good luck in Slovenia! We’ll be cheering from home.

Announcing the 2026 US Teams to JWOC and WUOC

The combined WUOC/JWOC 20026 Selection Committee – Jon Torrance (Chair), Ali Crocker, Brenda Blacklock, Ioana Fleming, and Will Enger – is pleased to announce the OUSA Teams for the 2026 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) and the 2026 World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC).

JWOC will be hosted in Karlskrona, Sweden, from June 27 – July 5, 2026, while WUOC will be hosted in Vila Real, Portugal from July 27 – August 1, 2026.

This being the third year of OUSA sponsoring a team to compete officially at the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC), and the end of the event overlapping with the start of JWOC (accreditation, model event), athletes vying for a spot on both teams were asked to commit to one over the other team if qualifying for both.

All qualifying athletes except for Alex Eriksson chose JWOC, while Alex decided to focus on EYOC 2026. The EYOC team will be announced soon.

Congratulations to this year’s JWOC and WUOC Teams!

JWOC Team

Male
Alex Eriksson (declined in favor of EYOC 2026)
Ben Cooper
Ian Dunlap
Ludvig Hagwall
Mikhail Biryukov
Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck
Nate Dunlap (1st Alternate)

2nd Alternate Andrew Driscoll
3rd Alternate Jayden Suarez

Female
Anna Green
Danny Buchholz
Greta Leonard
Kate deBlonk
Paige Suhocki
Sophie Howes

1st Alternate Kendal O’Callaghan
2nd Alternate Lorelai Megery

WUOC Team

Male
Anthony Riley
Ben Cooper
Benjamin Conley
Collin Thompson
Keegan Harkavy
Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck

1st Alternate Josh Fike
2nd Alternate Victor Frolenko

Female
Anna Green
Annika Mihata
Grace Suhocki
Lily Addicott
Oriana Riley
Paige Suhocki

1st Alternate Ava Suhocki
2nd Alternate Kate deBlonk

Vancouver Sprint Camp Event Recap

March 13-15, 2026

The Vancouver Sprint Camp is a fast and furious weekend of sprint racing and training, gathering many of North America’s best orienteers in one place. Many Americans, especially those on the West Coast, make the trip over the border to British Columbia to get a heavy dose head-to-head racing with their Canadian friends and rivals.

This year’s edition included a Sprint WRE and Knockout Sprint WRE, in addition to training sessions.

Organizers: Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club (GVOC)

Event Site

All photos in this post are by Robert Rodriguez.

Results, Maps, and Photos

2026 Nationals Event Recap

March 19-22, 2026

This year’s Sprint, Middle, and Long Championships took place in Maryland in a great variety of terrain that provided orienteers with different challenges each day!

  • Host: Quantico Orienteering Club
  • Venue:
    • University of Maryland (Sprint), College Park, MD (Sprint)
    • Bowie State University, Bowie, MD (Middle)
    • Bacon Ridge Natural Area, Crownsville, MD (Long)
  • Personnel
    • Event Director: Don Fish
    • Registrar and timing: Valerie Meyer
    • Course Designers: Jon Torrance (Sprint), Mihai Sirbu (Middle), Ted Good (Long)

Event website

Results & Maps

Closing Remarks

In a world where it seems like there are many outside pressures and significant disagreement about just about everything, I truly appreciated the positive, joyful vibe of our community coming together this weekend.

The weekend was full of wonderful moments:

  • The smiles on people’s faces as they reconnected with friends from across the country and around the world.
  • The opportunity to hang around together in the arena and enjoy each other’s company.
  • The top-notch competition and event support.
  • The participation of a robust and mutually-supportive group of JWOC- and WUOC-hopeful team trialers.
  • The inspiration of so many sidebars with people taking steps to move our sport forward.

We come from many backgrounds, but our shared love of the sport makes orienteering events truly special. Thank you to QOC for hosting us and to the many volunteers that made this event possible. We appreciate you!

– OUSA President Tori Campbell

Media

All photos in this post are by Jeanette Dunlap.

Online Course Review for 2026 Nationals

As is now tradition, there will be an online course review of select legs from this past weekend’s US Sprint, Middle, and Long Championships this Wednesday evening at 9pm ET. The session will be hosted by Peter Gagarin and Caroline Sandbo, who will use Livelox and their own expertise to discuss different route choices, the difficulties runners faced, and how best to approach some of the legs that gave people trouble. This is worth attending whether or not you competed at Nationals!

Join the meeting on Google Meet at 9pm ET on Wednesday, March 25th.

If you have suggestions for particular legs you’d like to see discussed, please email caroline.sandbo@nullorienteeringusa.org.

2026 World Ski Orienteering Championships Event Recap

The US team after the Sprint Relay (credit: Takako Hirokawa)

The World Ski Orienteering Championships (WSOC) took place in Rusutsu, Japan from March 2-6. The US sent a team of four athletes to the competition, with veteran international ski-o competitor Chris Burnham (Green Mountain Orienteering Club) providing guidance to newcomers Tamra Kornfield (Arctic Orienteering Club), Lauren Wardwell (Green Mountain Orienteering Club), and Josh Yeaton (Empire Orienteering Club).  The competition was based out of the Rusutsu ski resort, which meant lots of narrow tracks going up and down extremely steep climbs and descents with a ridiculous amount of snow. It wasn’t uncommon to see snow banks 6-10 feet high on the sides of the roads!

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