- HOME
- ARMY - NAVY SERIES
- CAMPS
- COMPLIANCE
- JOIN THE BLUE AND GOLD
- NEWSPAPER LINKS
- RECRUITS
- TEAM SCOREBOARDS
- VISITOR/SECURITY
Navy head coach Carla Criste begins her 18th year at the helm of the women's track & field program in 2008-09. Since coming to Annapolis in 1991, she has coached the Midshipmen to an impressive 227-50-1 record, good for an .817 winning percentage. Over the last three years, Criste has guided the Mids to an amazing 42-1 record (.977) in regular season meets, including a perfect indoor mark of 23-0. In addition to its regular season successes, Navy has also stepped up at the postseason championship level. Criste and the Midshipmen have posted three top-20 team efforts at the ECAC Championship since 2005 and four over the last five campaigns. Navy recorded a ninth-place team score at the ECAC Championship during the 2007 outdoor slate, its highest finish since moving up to the Division I ranks in 1991-92. In that same outdoor season, the Midshipmen also scored at the NCAA East Region Championship for the first time since the regional was added in 2003. In addition to her team's performance on the track, her student-athletes have also done their part in the classroom. Last year, senior Vicki Moore, who finished her collegiate career with a perfect 4.00 GPA and graduated as the Class of 2008 Valedictorian, became the second Navy and sixth Patriot League women's track & field competitor to claim indoor and outdoor scholar-athlete-of-the-year accolades in the same year. In 2007, one of Criste's student-athletes, recent graduate Kirsten Andrews, was named a First-Team Academic All-American, the second such laurel of her career. Thus, it came as no surprise when Criste's track & field team was awarded the Naval Academy Athletic Director's Cup for being the most successful all-around team on The Yard for the 2007-08 athletic season. Criste came to the Academy in 1991 after spending three years as an assistant women's track & field coach at George Mason. As a member of the Patriots' staff, she worked with the jumps, sprints, hurdles and multi-events. Five athletes earned All-America status and two became NCAA champions under her tutelage. The Patriots also captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division I Championship in each of the three years she was involved with the program. Criste has also been recognized on the national scene. She was selected as the field events coach for the 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival and coached the East team to victory, marking the East's first-win in the history of the festival. In 1999, Criste was named head coach for that year's Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Canada. She also served as head coach of the 1995 U.S. National Track & Field Team, which consisted of men's and women's junior and senior teams that came together for a series of meets against Canada. Criste guided the U.S. team to wins in all four meets that were contested between the two countries. A standout performer in her own right, Criste was a four-year letterwinner in track at Penn State, serving as captain of the Nittany Lion women's squad in 1985-86. She was an NCAA qualifier in the triple jump and was a national qualifier and ECAC record holder in the pentathlon and heptathlon. Criste also earned All-East honors in the pentathlon (4011), heptathlon (5677), long jump (19'11-3/4"), triple jump (40'7"), high jump (5'10"), hurdles (13.98), 800 meters (2:10.03), and 4x100-meter, 4x400-meter and 4x800-meter relays. After graduating from Penn State with a degree in nutritional science in 1986, she went on to earn her master's degree in exercise physiology from West Virginia in 1988. While at West Virginia, Criste served as an assistant track & field coach, handling the Mountaineers' jumps, sprints, hurdles and multi-events. After concluding her own collegiate career, Criste continued competing at the national level. For three years (1986-89) she competed at the U.S. Olympic Festival and was a member of the U.S. National Team from 1986-91. She was nationally ranked in both the triple jump and multi-events, representing the United States in several international team competitions. The daughter of Joan and Dave Criste (USNA `60), Criste also serves as an Assistant Athletic Director and as a professor at the Academy.
Criste's Career Totals (Entering 2008-09) Record Pct. Indoor Overall: 123-32-1 .791 Vs, Army: 8-7-1 .531 Outdoor Overall: 104-17 .860 Vs. Army: 9-7 .563 Overall Record at Navy: 227-50-1 (.817) Criste's Coaching Timeline *West Virginia (1987-88) - Assistant Coach •Earned master's degree in exercise physiology *George Mason (1989-91) - Assistant Coach •Coached five athletes to All-America honors *Navy (1991-Present) - Head Coach •Has totaled a 216-49-1 career record •Four top-20 teams at ECAC Championship *U.S. Olympic Festival (1993) - Field Coach *U.S. Olympic Festival East Team (1994) - Head Coach •Guided team to its first-ever win *U.S. Pan Am Team (1999) - Head Coach |
 
|
|||||||||||||||
