FIGURE SKATING U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Eldredge Takes Title; Wylie Wins Hearts

It was one of those rare times in figure skating when hardly anyone went home a loser.

A men’s national champion was crowned Sunday. Todd Eldredge, 18, came from fifth place a year ago to first, firmly establishing himself as someone to reckon with in the sport not only for the 1992 Winter Olympics but perhaps 1994 as well.

He, however, was no more pleased than Harvard honor student Paul Wylie, who finished second overall but first in the hearts of the 3,788 spectators at the Salt Palace with a romantic freestyle program that earned him four perfect scores of 6.0 for composition and style.

Even Christopher Bowman, the defending champion from Van Nuys, should be consoled by the fact that no one took away his title on the ice.

After struggling with back pains through the first two phases of the competition, he finally dropped out Sunday. But he will still join Eldredge and Wylie at the World Championships next month in Halifax, Canada.

Bowman’s withdrawal virtually clinched the championship for Eldredge, who is from South Chatham, Mass., but has trained in San Diego for two years. He won the compulsory figures and the original program, meaning that his closest pursuer, Wylie, had to finish two places ahead of him in the freestyle program to win the title.

With Bowman out, none of the other skaters besides third-place Mark Mitchell of Hamden, Conn., figured to have a chance to finish between Wylie and Eldredge. Wylie was hopeful until Mitchell turned a triple axel into a single.

“It was like, ‘See ya,’ ” Wylie said, bidding farewell to his championship chances.

Everyone in figure skating no doubt will be seeing a lot of Eldredge. Not since Thomas Litz went from junior champion in 1962 to senior champion a year later has a man made a jump like Eldredge did this year. But it wasn’t entirely a surprise.

The son of a Cape Cod commercial fisherman, Eldredge showed considerable potential while following his coach, Richard Callaghan, from Massachusetts to Philadelphia to Colorado Springs and finally to San Diego.

Callaghan talked Sunday like they may stay in San Diego.

“If you have a bad day, you can walk outside and feel OK,” he said.

Eldredge won the world junior championship in 1988 and probably would have finished higher than fifth in the nationals last year if not for two cracked vertebrae in his back. He further indicated he was ready to make his move last October at Skate Electric in London, when he beat Poland’s Gregor Filipowski, who was third in the 1989 World Championships.

The youngest national champion since Scotty Allen in 1966, Eldredge is ahead of where some of his famous predecessors, such as Brian Boitano and Scott Hamilton, were at his age, particularly technically. The difficulty of his program earned him second place behind Wylie in the freestyle competition. But Eldredge needs work artistically.

“What he really needs is rapport with the audience,” Callaghan said.

If Wylie had any more rapport with the audience Sunday, the line outside divorce court today would be a mile long.

Some women in the audience didn’t wait until he finished to give him a standing ovation as he skated the final moments of his program to Beethoven’s “Four Overtures for Fidelio.”

The four perfect scores gave him six for the championship. He received two for Friday night’s original program.

“I don’t think anyone can quite fathom perfect,” he said, “but it’s really nice to have people say you’re up to that standard.”

Actually, he admitted he wasn’t perfect. He pointed out two small glitches, but the program was so aesthetically pleasing that no one was quibbling.

Wylie, 25, was an Olympian in 1988, but he finished third in the nationals last year and didn’t earn an invitation to the World Championships. He almost retired after finishing second at both the Olympic Festival and Skate Canada. But he said he rededicated himself after seeing the impact his skating had on other people at a charity benefit in Boston for children with cancer.

“That was a magical week for me,” he said. “There was the children’s benefit; the Berlin Wall came down; and Saul Bellow spoke at Harvard.”