Cal High Grad Shows Well at U.S. Figure Skating Championships

A year ago, San Ramon native Craig Norris' debut at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with pairs partner AnnaMarie Pearce was essentially a learning experience. At the time, the two had only worked together for a few months and had no real expectations going into the competition.

Since then, they've grown significantly as skaters and entered this week's competition at HP Pavilion in San Jose with something to prove. It was more progress than placement, but, regardless, they wanted to show well skating close to their East Bay roots.

After a seventh-place finish in the junior pairs, Norris was pleased, overall.

"We absolutely nailed our short program (on Tuesday)," said Norris, a 2008 Cal High graduate. 

Tuesday's skate marked the first time they landed a throw triple loop in competition – a trick they worked to perfect all summer. 

Pearce called it the "skate of a lifetime."

The short program left the duo in sixth place headed into Wednesday's free skate and feeling good about how far they'd come. 

Both said they were happy with Wednesday's performance too, but acknowledged it wasn't their best.

“We could have done better, but for the program that we put out, it was a good program,” Pearce said. “We came into the competition wanting to do two good solid programs and we did. This is our hometown so we wanted to show them that we were working hard. We were so excited to be able to compete at our home arena.”

Norris and Pearce both , where Norris attends Saddleback College. Pearce is a senior in high school, but is home-schooled through BYU.

Both skaters said they plan on remaining a team for the long-haul, with their ultimate goal being to represent the United States in international competition. Norris even went as far as to say it might even be possible next year.

"This year we were able to go back to the basics and gel and mesh together and really develop our skills," he said. "We really worked on a lot of that in the spring and summer. During the summer, we were traveling a bunch, doing a bunch of competitions and it gave us a lot of practice leading up to this."

"We’ve progressed so much this year, who knows what we’ll be able to do next year," Pearce said.

Next week, however, they'll head to Klamath Falls, Oreg., where they'll perform in Ice! Camera! Action!, a skating show that will also feature 2011 U.S. men's champion Ryan Bradley.

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