Claire Critchley

Position:
Nordic
Height:
5-6
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Alberta, Canada
High School:
Queen's University

Top Career Freestyle Finish: 3rd (twice, last 2003 NCAA West Regional)

Top Career Classical Finish: 4th (2003 NCAA West Regional)

2003?Critchley has been the backbone of this year’s nordic team and will be competing in her first, and final, NCAA Championship. The lone Buff to start, and finish, all 10 races, she has also been the only Buff to score in all 10 races in ’03. Although slightly off her freshman year pace, it took four races of top-25 finishes to get warmed up, as she has turned in all top-10 efforts in the last four. Her best weekend of the season, understandably, was in CU’s own Invitational where she finished fourth in the freestyle and eighth in the next day’s classical. One of just two “healthy” skiers at the Western State invite, she finished seventh in the classical and 10th in the freestyle. She would turn in the team’s best individual effort in both races at the NCAA West Regional, with a season and team best third-place finish in the freestyle before a best fourth-place skate in the classical. She barely missed All-American Status at the NCAA Championships in Hanover, N.H. when she finished 14th in the freestyle and 12th in the classical, both career championship finishes. An All-RMISA selection.

2002? Critchley joined the Buffs during the semester break and made an immediate impact when she turned in a pair of top-10 finishes in the season opener at Montana State. She repeated that effort a week later with an eighth-place effort in the 5k classical and sixth in the 10k freestyle races at the Nevada Invite. After finishing 11th and 14th in the classical and freestyle, respectively, she capped off the regular season with her best weekend of the season, skating to third place finishes in both races at the New Mexico Invitational. In the postseason she closed out her first season at CU with a 17th- place showing in the classical and 18th in the freestyle in Anchorage.

High School?Critchley competed in track and field and cross country finishing second, individually, in both sports in the city championships while her Strathcona Composite teams were Provincial Champions in both from 1997-99.

Other?Critchley was a member of the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club from 1999-2000 where she won the overall Canadian Championship and at the World Junior Championships finished as the second Canadian. In 2001 she was a member of the Canadian National Junior Ski Team and finished as the second overall in the Canadian Championships.

Academics?Critchley has turned in three straight Dean’s List semesters, including a near perfect 3.947 last fall. Her 3.838 cumulative grade point average is the highest on the team for the kinesiology major. She was named to the 2003 Division I National All-Academic Ski Team and would like to pursue a career in physical therapy after college.