Recap-Day Seven

CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION
Ladies

Michelle Kwan won her sixth national title (her fifth straight) 
after her powerful performance to Nickolay Rimsky-Korakov's 
"Sheherazade," landing six triples and taking all nine first place 
ordinals. She skated clean, just scaling back her triple toe-triple 
toe combination to a double for the second jump.
"You work for so long and you hope to skate with freedom. When you 
skate you just let it all loose, regardless of how many triples I 
did. Just the feeling of it is just incredible," she said.
Sasha Cohen earned her second U.S. silver medal with her program of 
selections from Bizet's "Carmen," after a year away from national 
competition due to last year's back injury. She tried to add a 
second triple Salchow, but put her hand down. She did landed her 
other six triples, although the triple Lutz was not perfect. 
Cohen skated with more speed than Sarah Hughes, won the silver medal 
on a 7-2 judges decision. "This is really exciting and has been a 
dream for a long time. "Since I've been training so hard, I almost a 
little expected to go (to the Olympics), but now that it is for 
sure, it is very exciting," Cohen said.
Hughes skated well, but a little cautiously, to "Daphnis et Chloe" 
by Ravel and Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto Number 2 Adagio" and 
received two second place and seven third place ordinals. On her 
triple Salchow-triple loop combination, she singled the loop jump 
but landed seven triples. She changed her planned double Axel into a 
triple toe loop.
"It was a great competition. The girls were great and I will be 
proud to be an Olympian," said Hughes. Coach Robin Wagner added, "I 
am not disappointed (with third place.) She's a fighter. She's on 
the Olympic team and that is what we came here to do."
Kwan, Cohen and Hughes were all named to both the Olympic and World 
Teams.
Angela Nikodinov started off very strong for the first half of her 
program, landing four triples, but after a fall on her triple loop, 
she doubled the rest of her jumps. She is the first alternate for 
the World and Olympic teams after a tough year that included the 
loss of her beloved coach, Elena Tcherskasskaia, on November 12.
"I think in the end it was a lack of conditioning. I haven't been 
able to get in as many run-throughs as I would have liked. I just 
have to learn from what went wrong here," she said.
"We have a wonderful ladies Olympic team and it would also have been 
a wonderful team if Angela had made the team," said her new coach, 
Frank Carroll. 
"My biggest fear was that she was not trained enough for this event 
and I feel tonight's problems were a result of not enough rigorous 
daily training. This has been a very emotional time for her, but she 
will continue to train as the Olympic team alternate."
They only were able to work together for a few weeks prior to these 
championships.
Jennifer Kirk finished fifth after a strong, clean skate to her new 
"Danse Macabre" free skating program, only scaling back her second 
triple toe loop to a double in her triple Lutz combination.
Dance
Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev won their fourth straight national 
Championship Dance title, receiving three 6.0's and six 5.9's for 
timing and expression for their sultry "Parisian Walkways" free 
dance. Their technical marks were lower, ranging from with one 5.4, 
one 5.5, two 5.6's, three 5.7's, one 5.8 and a 5.9. "We want to ask 
each one of the judges what the deductions were and make corrections 
for the Olympics. We also want to go to Four Continents since there 
will be international judges there," he said.
This was the first competitive performance of their free skate due 
to his shin splits injury earlier this season, although they did 
skate it as an exhibition at the Hershey Kisses Challenge in 
December. With Tchernyshev' gaining U.S. citizenship last year, they 
can represent the U.S. at the Olympics.
"It means so much that he was willing to give up his Russian 
citizenship to skate with me," said Lang. They received eight first 
place ordinals and one-second place. 
"This is a long awaited dream come true," added Tchernyshev.
The 2002 U.S. silver medalists, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, made 
their second World team with a spirited performance to "Tribute to 
Sarajevo." They did take one first place ordinal from the champions 
and earned eight second place ordinals. 
They cannot go to the Olympics since Belbin is a Canadian citizen. 
Belbin received word this past June that her green card was approved 
but has not received the actual card yet.
"Things got delayed with the tragic events of September 11 and the 
process is rather intricate for citizenship," she explained. They 
were named to the Four Continents team and the World Junior team.
A new team, Melissa Gregory and husband Denis Petukhov, moved up 
from fourth place to third place with their romantic rendition to 
Sandi Patti's "Via Dolorosa," with six third place ordinals and 
three fourth place ordinals. They won their bronze medal by one 
judge's decision.
"As a new team, winning the bronze is like winning first. I am so 
happy with how they skated," said their coach, Sandy Hess.
This team is not yet able to compete internationally for the United 
States, but hope to do that next season. "I have been released by my 
(Russian) federation, but not yet by the ISU," he explained. He came 
to this United States in June 2000, after Gregory and he found each 
other on the Internet. They married in February 2001. 
Another married couple, four-time pewter medalists Beata Handra and 
Charles Sinek, introduced their "Samson and Delilah" program at 
these championships that was created for them by Shanti Ruchpaul. 
They had missed skating their internationals due to his injury. They 
were named to both the Olympic team and the Four Continents team.
"Finishing fourth last year just made us more determined," she said. 
"My injury on August 15 kept us from fully training until November, 
which only gave us two months to get ready for this competition," 
said Sinek.
Jessica Joseph and Brandon Forsyth remained in fifth place with nine 
fifth place ordinals and are the first alternates to the 2002 
Olympic team.