Trenary Wins Individual Skating Title, Yamaguchi Wins Spectators’ Hearts

One of Kristi Yamaguchi’s coaches recently called her the skater of the century. Although that might be exaggerating a bit, and then again it might not be before she is finished, she certainly was the skater of the week at the U.S. figure skating championships.

That was somewhat disconcerting to Jill Trenary, who was second in the hearts of the crowds, the media and, at least in Saturday’s long program, the judges.

But Trenary, of Minnetonka, Minn., was not without consolation: her second national championship in the last three years. She won her first as an 18-year-old high school senior at Tacoma, Wash., in 1987, when she upset reigning world champion Debi Thomas.

“The public is very fickle,” said Christa Fassi, who helps her husband, Carlo, coach Trenary at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs. “In Tacoma, it was Jill’s year. Here, it was Kristi Yamaguchi. But Jill has the title.”

She would not have if the International Skating Union’s decision to eliminate compulsory figures had gone into effect this year instead of after the 1990 world championships. Whereas Trenary on Wednesday won the figures competition, which counts toward 20% of the final score, Yamaguchi struggled to finish eighth.

One of the reasons Yamaguchi is so appealing to crowds as a freestyle skater is because of her 4-foot-11, 82-pound body. But because she doesn’t have much weight to put behind her figure-eights in the compulsories, her tracings in the ice don’t make much impression on the judges.

But if Yamaguchi, 17, a high school senior from Fremont, Calif., was anything but brilliant the rest of the week, it was somewhere other than on the ice.

On Wednesday night, a few hours after her figures disappointment, she and her partner, Rudi Galindo of San Jose, finished second in the original program of the pairs competition. On Thursday night, she was second to Trenary in the original program of the women’s singles to move into fourth place overall. On Friday night, she and Galindo knocked off the favorites, Natalie and Wayne Seybold, to win the pairs championship.

“I don’t think she even thinks about being tired,” said her coach, Christy Kjarsgaard. “She can’t with her schedule.”

After only four hours’ sleep, Yamaguchi was back on the ice Saturday morning to prepare for her 4-minute long program. By the time she was ready to perform a few hours later, the adrenaline was flowing again. The crowd of 10,046 could feel it, gasping at each of her seven triple jumps. She wouldn’t stand still, doing 10 revolutions in one 14-second period.

When she finished, the crowd spontaneously rose to applaud her. That was in sharp contrast to the crowd’s polite but unenthusiastic response earlier to Trenary’s program.

It wasn’t that Trenary was bad. In fact, she was elegant. For her style, she earned the highest scores from the judges. But there didn’t seem to be much fire in her routine, at least not as much as in the last two years when she was chasing Thomas. She didn’t show much emotion this year.

Nor much motion. Instead of the five triple jumps that she planned, she completed four. That no doubt cost her technical points. “Nothing’s ever perfect,” Trenary said. “But Katarina Witt (of East Germany) is a good example for me. She won the Olympics twice with four triple jumps. It’s how you perform them that counts.”

Most of the judges, however, preferred Yamaguchi in the long program, which accounts for 50% of the final score. Five of the nine ranked her first and three ranked her second to give her the victory. Trenary received three firsts and six seconds to finish second.

That was more than enough to win the title for Trenary, who would have had to finish fifth Saturday to lose it after her consistently good performances in the compulsory figures and the original program. Yamaguchi advanced from fourth to second overall, and Tonya Harding, 18, of Portland, Ore., finished third after a third-place finish in the long program. Holly Cook, 18, of Bountiful, Utah, was fourth.

Jeri Campbell, 18, who trains in Burbank, was fifth entering the long program, but she couldn’t skate Saturday because of an injured foot. Still, the program was loaded with exceptional skaters.

The women’s field was not expected to be that strong because of the absence of two of last year’s Olympians, Thomas, who retired, and Caryn Kadavy, who is injured. But several women indicated through their performances that they are not going to concede the next three national titles leading to the 1992 Winter Olympics to Trenary, who finished fourth at Calgary last year. “I think this was the best skating we’ve ever had from the women,” said Carlo Fassi, who coached Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill to Olympic championships. “They’re getting better all the time. We have seven skaters who can beat the Europeans.”

But only the first two, Trenary and Yamaguchi, will be allowed to represent the United States in the world championships next month at Paris.

Trenary seemed relieved to have this competition behind her.

“I’m one of the favorites at worlds, but I’m not expected to win,” she said. “I like that. I’m just glad I made it through this.”

As for Yamaguchi, she also will have a full schedule at Paris. She will become the first woman since Margaret Graham in 1954 to represent the United States at the world championships in both individual and pairs competitions.

That’s the world senior championships. Yamaguchi not only competed in singles and pairs at the 1988 world junior championships, she won gold medals in both.

She entered the national senior championships a few months later at Denver, where she finished fifth in pairs and 10th individually.

Although she and Galindo were expected to contend for a berth on the U.S. team in pairs this year, she said that she was hoping only to finish among the top five individually.

Second place was a pleasant surprise. “I’m really excited to go to Paris,” she said.

But after that, she’s going to take some time off to enjoy the final couple of months of her senior year. She wants to go to the prom.

Skating Notes

Olympians Susan Wynne of Camillus, N.Y., and Joseph Druar of Amherst, N.Y., won the dance championship Saturday night. Another Olympian, Suzanne Semanick of Bridgeville, Pa., has a new partner, Ron Kravette of Costa Mesa, because Scott Gregory retired. They finished third. Tiffany Veltre and Duane Greenleaf of Long Beach were 15th. . . . Cindy Bortz, a former world junior champion from Tarzana, finished sixth in the women’s competition. . . . Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park and Richard Alexander were second in junior pairs. Dawn and Troy Goldstein of Culver City were ninth. . . . In junior dance, Kara Berger of San Diego and Jay Barton of Torrance were fifth. Dana Schneider of South Pasadena and Stephen Lauman of Thousand Oaks were 12th. . . . Correction: Casey Link, who won the novice girls’ competition, is coached by Kris Amerine of the Las Vegas Figure Skating Club, not Doug Varvais of Conejo Valley.