FIGURE SKATING U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Trenary Better Than Ever for Third Title

Jill Trenary skated not to lose last year and didn’t. But instead of receiving roses for her second national championship, she got barbs. After a press conference, during which most of the questions were directed toward Kristi Yamaguchi, the runner-up and presumed heir apparent, Trenary left the room in tears.

“Everybody said, ‘Jill won, but . . . ‘ “ her coach, Carlo Fassi, said Saturday. “That bugged her all year. She wanted to come back and do it.”

Only minutes before at the Salt Palace, Trenary, 21, had done it, skating the best freestyle program of her life to become the first woman since Rosalynn Sumners (1982-84) to win three national championships.

While Trenary, again wiping tears but more joyous this year, stood on the victory podium next to Yamaguchi, again the runner-up, and third-place Holly Cook, Fassi placed her on a much higher pedestal.

“In my book, I have three girls now--Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Jill Trenary,” said Fassi, who coached all three. “This was a performance like Peggy’s in Philadelphia (at the 1968 national championships) and Dorothy’s in Munich (at the 1974 World Championships), the best they can do.”

Asked to compare them, Fassi, 60, said: “That’s like comparing a Porsche, a 1956 Ford and a Model-T. I’m sorry to compare Peggy to a Model-T, but I was a bicycle when I competed.”

One method to separate them might be Olympic gold medals. Fleming and Hamill each have one, but Trenary finished fourth in her first Olympics in 1988. She wasn’t prepared Saturday to answer whether she will try again in 1992.

“If I don’t feel I can devote my life to skating in the next two years, I won’t do it,” said Trenary, who is from Minnetonka, Minn., but has lived in Colorado Springs for six years while training under Fassi. “That’s sad, but it’s hard to keep myself up.”

Trenary entered the freestyle program--which counts for 50% of the final score--in first place, but her hold on the title was precarious. When she left the ice after falling on a double axel in Thursday night’s original program, she overheard ABC commentator Dick Button say, “That could be it for her championship.”

Adding bad luck to insult, she drew her least favorite position for Saturday’s skating order--last. That meant she had to wait about 40 minutes after warming up before returning to the ice. To pass the time and soothe her nerves, she bought a Walkman and listened to a Paula Abdul cassette.

That would have drowned out the cheers for the other skaters, but there weren’t that many from a disappointing crowd of 5,262 as the challengers failed to challenge.

Women’s skating has become more athletic in recent years, but the Salt Palace is where the triple jump came to die. Some have blamed that on the high altitude. Others have more creative explanations.

“It’s the salt in the ice,” a local bartender said Friday night. “Good for margaritas, bad for skating.”

Tonya Harding of Portland, Ore., who started the day in second place and was supposed to wow the judges with a triple axel, couldn’t shake a case of the flu, completed only two triple jumps and coughed all the way to seventh place. Cook, the hometown favorite from the suburb of Bountiful, improved from fourth place to third, but she also performed only two triple jumps and botched two others.

Even Yamaguchi, who is from Fremont, Calif., fell twice and completed only four triple jumps. She planned seven. The judges advanced her from third to second overall, but she lost a chance to become the first woman in 40 years to win national championships in both singles and pairs. She and Rudi Galindo defended their pairs title Friday night.

“I definitely didn’t deserve to win,” Yamaguchi said. “Maybe there was a little bit more pressure than last year when I was pretty much the unknown coming up.”

With the other women self-destructing, Fassi instructed Trenary to skate conservatively. She would have none of it, perfectly landing four of five triple jumps and earning one 6.0 for her presentation. It was the first perfect score of her career.

“There are always going to be critics,” Trenary said. “I’m sure there are going to be critics even about my performance today. But I’ve never felt so good about myself. I did everything I was supposed to do right.”

Then, as if responding directly to the critics, she gritted her teeth and said, “I was tough.”