Though Kwan's season moved along more smoothly than Cohen's, she said recently that she was disappointed in her performance at a December Pro-Am and had been grappling with skating boot problems that were slowing her training. She also said she had been extremely challenged adapting her programs to the new computerized judging system that will debut at this year's world championships.
Kirk, 20, threw a fist in the air when she finished a clean performance that included a triple-Lutz, double-toe combination jump. Though she finished a career-best third at last year's nationals, she described the season in between as "horrible."
Sasha Cohen is in second place behind Michelle Kwan at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships entering Saturday's deciding long program.
(Rick Bowmer - AP)
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_____Live Online_____
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The Post's Amy Shipley will take questions on the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at 2 p.m. Friday.
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Submit questions.
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_____Skating Championships_____
When: Through Saturday.
Where: Portland, Ore.
Schedule: Today -- Dance, pairs long programs. Tomorrow -- Men's and women's long program.
Today's TV: 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., ESPN2 (taped).
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_____ 2004 Summer Olympics _____
• Look back at the Athens Games, highlighted by Michael Phelps's eight medals and marked by unfounded worries over terrorism.
• Photos
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Last summer, she moved to Hermosa Beach, Calif., from Detroit to join coach Frank Carroll. She said the transition to living life on her own, without the daily help of her sister, proved overwhelming at first. She said the challenges of paying bills, dealing with her own car and living by herself affected her training and performances.
"It's really been a hard year," said Kirk, who lost her 52-year-old mother to breast cancer in the summer of 2001. "There were a lot of tears, a lot of personal changes in my life."
Competing in her first senior nationals, Meissner skated a mostly clean program to Debussy's Reverie that included a triple-Lutz, double toe combination jump. Last year's junior national champion, Meisser, who trains in Newark, Del., earned scores ranging from 5.2 to 5.6 for technical merit and 5.1 to 5.6 for presentation.
One of the more interesting moments in the evening came early, when Emily Hughes, the 15-year-old sister of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah, competed in her first senior U.S. nationals, skating a solid but not flawless program that drew roars from the crowd and landed her a ninth-place finish.
"It was so exciting," said Hughes, a sophomore at Great Neck North High. "The crowd was so loud. It was just great."
