Orinda Teen Readies for U.S. National Figure Skating Championships

• Name: AnnaMarie Pearce
• School or league: National Championships
• Team: U.S. Figure Skating
• Award: Junior Level - Pair Skating

Orinda native AnnaMarie Pearce is scheduled to compete with partner Craig Norris in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at HP Pavilion in San Jose.

AnnaMarie and Craig are training long hours both on and off the ice in hopes of making it to the podium in San Jose.

This is the second consecutive year that Pearce and Norris have qualified for the National Championships. They have come a long way in only 16 months of skating as a pair team. This year, they moved up to the junior level (the second highest division) and placed second in the sectional championships.

Pearce has been skating since she was 7 years old, completing her first skating school session at Dublin Iceland. 

Pearce met Norris at Dublin Iceland while he was on college break. The two had grown up together skating at Dublin Iceland until he went off to college, when he started skating pairs. The skaters started with an overhead lift, liked it, and then tried a couple of throw jumps. The partnership was cemented there on the ice.

Months later Pearce and her mother moved to Southern California to train pairs with Norris and be coached by three-time U.S. Pairs champions Todd Sand and Jenni Meno.  Since then Pearce has achieved Gold status as a Senior Ladies freestyle skater, advanced to Junior level as a pair skater and is posting straight A’s in the advanced high school program through BYU Independent Study.