Nagasu Wins Title; Bronze To Wagner

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 26 -- The defending U.S. women's figure skating champion was beaten to the medal stand Saturday night by a 14-year-old who recovered from a potentially disastrous start, a California teen who loves boogie boarding and an 11th-grader from West Potomac High.

As Bel Air's Kimmie Meissner gave up her crown with one of the worst performances of her career, tumbling from fourth to seventh place in the deciding long program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Mirai Nagasu won her first U.S. title despite a fall seconds into her program; Rachael Flatt, 15, claimed second place with a nearly flawless performance; and Alexandria's Ashley Wagner, 16, earned the bronze medal -- and a trip to the senior world championships in Sweden in March.

"I feel like I deserved it, I earned it," Wagner said. "What else can you say? I'm 16 and I just made the world team. That's kind of crazy."

A night that showcased figure skating's most promising and youthful stars also left the sport in a bit of a bind. Caroline Zhang, 14, moved up from seventh to fourth place on the strength of a mistake-free long program. That meant among the top four skaters, only Wagner met the age requirement -- turning 15 by July 1, 2007 -- to attend the senior world championships.

More than an hour after the event concluded, U.S. Figure Skating Association officials announced that Wagner would be joined on the world team by fifth-place finisher Beatrisa Liang and Meissner, 18, even though Katrina Hacker, 17, finished ahead of Meissner. Hacker, who was sixth, has virtually no international experience.

When Nagasu learned she had won, she thrust the heart-shaped box of candy a fan had thrown her skyward and leaped to her feet. She later said she was thrilled to have withstood the Axel mishap, which cost her a victory in the long program -- Flatt and Wagner topped her -- but will give her a chance to become the first person to win a U.S. senior title and a world junior title in the same year. She, Flatt and Zhang are expected to attend the junior worlds in Bulgaria.

"I think the fall on the double Axel was like a kick in the butt," Nagasu said. "After that, I just attacked it."

She earned 190.41 points over the two days of competition, as Flatt totaled 188.73 and Wagner, 188.56. Zhang received 173.16 and Meissner, who finished fourth at last year's world championships after winning in 2006, ended up with 157.56.

"I just need to think about what I did here and what went wrong and why, and fix it," Meissner said through tears soon after her skate.

Zhang, who skated before the top six, set the bar extremely high with a clean and complex program that drew roars from the crowd. She hit all of her jumps -- six triples and five doubles -- including a triple flip-triple toe combination and a triple loop-double toe-double loop.

I thought, "Oh, I have nothing to lose, I'm already in seventh," she said. "I'm just really happy with how I skated. [At the end], I went, 'Wow, it's actually over.' "

Meissner missed the entry triple jumps of her first two planned combination jumps, falling hard. She fell later attempting a triple loop. All told, she hit just two triple jumps and four doubles. The performance brought back nightmarish memories of the December Grand Prix Final, when she also fell three times in the long program and finished last.