FIGURE SKATING U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Urbanski and Marval Are a Winning Pair

A 31-year-old waitress from Skokie, Ill., and a 26-year-old truck driver from New Egypt, N.J., who have spent some of their time here this week on the ice and some of it seeking donations to support their figure skating, became national pairs champions Thursday night.

Calla Urbanski, the oldest competitor in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Orlando Arena, and Rocco Marvaldi, who competes under the name of Rocky Marval, moved from third place after Wednesday’s original program to first with a winning free-skating program.

Two teams that train under Coach John Nicks at Costa Mesa’s Ice Capades Chalet, Jenni Meno of Westlake, Ohio, and Scott Wendland of Costa Mesa, and Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa, finished second and third, respectively, to also earn berths on the team that the United States will send to the Winter Olympics next month at Albertville, France.

The defending champions, Kuchiki and Sand, entered Thursday night’s program in first place but dropped to third with an erratic performance.

Urbanski and Marval were not especially graceful, but their clean, powerful program roused the crowd of 7,648 to a standing ovation.

Notes

As expected, two-time defending men’s champion Todd Eldredge withdrew because of a back injury. The U.S. Figure Skating Assn.’s international committee will decide after Saturday’s freestyle competition whether to give one of three U.S. men’s Olympic berths to Eldredge, who was third in the world last year. . . . April Sargent-Thomas of Ogdensburg, N.Y., who had emergency surgery for a ruptured ovarian cyst 17 days before beginning competition here, and her partner, Russ Witherby of Cincinnati, moved into first place after Thursday night’s original dance. Rachel Mayer of Wellesley, Mass., and Peter Breen of Brockton, Mass., are second. The Olympic team will be determined after tonight’s free dance. . . . The Sciarrotta siblings, Nicole and Gregory Jr. of Huntington Beach, won the junior pairs competition. They train at Costa Mesa.