Carla Criste takes the helm of the Navy women's track & field team for her 16th season in 2006-07. Since joining the program in the 1991-92 season, she has amassed an impressive Division I record of 176-43-1 (.802).

Last season, Criste guided the Mids to a perfect 14-0 record. Navy finished among the top-three at both Patriot League Championships and sent three of its own to compete at the NCAA East Regional Championship.

She came to the Academy after spending three years as an assistant women's track & field coach at George Mason. As a member of the Patriots' staff, Criste worked with the jumps, sprints, hurdles and multi-events. Five athletes earned All-America status and two became NCAA champions under Criste's tutelage. The Patriots also captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division I Championship in each of the three years she was associated 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, Manitoba, Canada. She also was named head coach of the 1995 U.S. National Track & Field Team, which consisted of men's and women's junior and senior teams 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 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 Assistant Athletic Director and Senior Women's Administrator as well as a professor at the Academy.