After spending the 27 seasons as the head coach of the Navy women’s track and field program, Carla Criste announced her retirement from collegiate coaching effective August 31, 2018. Criste has remained with the United States Naval Academy as a full-time professor and administrator in the Physical Education department.
In her nearly three decades at the helm of the Navy women's track and field program, Navy earned six Patriot League team titles (three indoor / three outdoor) with 120 individual Patriot League champions and 20 championship relay teams.
The Midshipmen won Patriot League Indoor Championships in 2001, 2009, and 2011 and Outdoor Championships in 2003, 2012 and 2018 with Criste at the helm. Additionally, Navy won the ECAC outdoor competition in 1989 and the indoor meet in 1989 and 1991.
Criste’s success carried over into Navy's Star Meet competitions against archrival Army, where she boasted a 33-19-1 record, including an impressive 22-8 mark against the Black Knights over the last 15 years. Under her guidance, Navy has defeated Army in 15 of the last 20 indoor / outdoor Star Meets. Prior to Criste’s arrival, the Midshipmen’s women’s track and field team was winless against the Black Knights in 11 meetings (six indoor / five outdoor).
In addition to her team's performance on the track, Criste's student-athletes have also done their part in the classroom. Fifteen student-athletes were voted to the Patriot League All-Academic Team with eight being selected Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year and two named Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Criste came to the Academy in 1991 after spending three years as an assistant with the women's program at George Mason, where she oversaw the jumps, sprints, hurdles and multi-events. There, five athletes earned All-America status and two became NCAA champions under her tutelage. The Patriots also captured the ECAC Division I Championship in each of her three seasons.
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 and 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. to wins in all four meets.
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 both the pentathlon and heptathlon.
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 and 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.
