Wendland, Meno Make a Perfect Pairing on Ice : Figure skating: Six months after teaming up, they finished third at 1990 nationals. Last month, they made Olympic team.

By the time they get on the ice during the Olympics, they usually look like a match made in heaven. They glide and flow. They toe loop and double axel as one. It’s a union of majesty and magic.

Even a casual observer, who has never even strapped on a skate, figures it must take a lot of hard work to make anything look that easy. But success in pairs figure skating requires a good bit of luck, too.

With desire, discipline and direction, a talented solo skater can push the edge of potential. A talented pairs skater needs more than the right stuff and a good coach, however. The right partner is essential.

Just ask Scott Wendland. Wendland moved from Spokane to Costa Mesa in 1983 and had struggled through a number of mismatches in his early attempts at forming the right pairs team. He even took a year’s hiatus from competition, mostly out of frustration because he couldn’t create a team with chemistry.

Two years ago, John Nicks--Wendland’s coach, who now says confidently “with Scott’s ability, it was only a matter of time,”--got a call that changed Wendland’s fortune. A friend from Cleveland telephoned to say Jenni Meno wanted to try pairs skating.

“I had seen Jenni skate as a soloist many times and she has all of the physical attributes for pairs skaters,” Nicks said. “She’s small and light, yet strong. She combines a lot of courage and yet still has great artistic feeling and femininity in her skating.

“It seemed to be a great physical matchup.”

There was one slight hang-up, however. Meno knew absolutely nothing about pairs skating . . . beyond the fact that she really wanted to try it.

“It would have made things a lot easier to find an accomplished pairs skater, but there was just no one out there that I felt was a strong enough singles skater,” Wendland said. “In my early pairs skating, I had partners who had troubles with their singles skating. This time, we took the approach to go the other way.”

So Meno, 18 at the time, packed her skates and came to Cosa Mesa for a tryout.

“I had always wanted to skate pairs, but I didn’t want to leave my coach, and my parents didn’t really want me to leave home,” she said. “But I had met Scott at nationals and I really wanted to do pairs. So I came out and we tried out.”

It was a humbling experience for Meno.

“I’d never skated pairs before, so we had to start at the basics,” she said. “I had to learn everything . It was really hard and so different. You use completely different muscles. My aching body could tell you that.

“At first, it was like, ‘Ohhh, I don’t know.’ But I really liked it and Mr. Nicks kept saying he thought we could do really well together. You always have doubts, I guess.”

Wendland will admit he was harboring his share.

“After we tried out, Mr. Nicks said he saw a lot of possibilities, but not everything went wonderfully,” Wendland said. “It was bound to happen, especially since Jenni had no experience.

“You just don’t know right off. You have to work through it and then if it comes, it comes. I just trusted Mr. Nicks and decided to try and go full force with it.”

Six months after making the decision to team up, Wendland and Meno finished third at the 1990 U.S. nationals. Last month, at the ’91 nationals--which also served as the Olympic Trials--they were second, earning a trip to Albertville, France.

And that’s a long way from the rink at Ice Capades Chalet, where their once-humble quest began.

In those early days, Olympic medals were not even daydreams. On the ice, their goals were as simple as a clean lift or a smooth landing. And after practice, Meno was searching for a comfort zone in Costa Mesa.

“I moved into an apartment two minutes away from the rink,” she said. “I came out by myself and it was really hard at first. I didn’t know anyone, not even Scott or Mr. Nicks. No one.”

Meno had become a pairs skater, but she sometimes still felt awfully alone. Going to practice was sort of like taking a Spanish class in Mexico City.

“We just had to go to the very basics,” Wendland said. “We had to break everything down, show Jenni that through a lift there’s five or six different stages. Then, after you learn the mechanics of it, you have to make it flow.

“I knew it would be a lot of work. But we worked really hard and found out we worked well together. So a lot of things did come quite quickly.”

Even Nicks was surprised at the pace of their progress. But he isn’t surprised by their success. Meno’s inexperience as a pairs skater may have been a disadvantage in the early going, but her skill as a soloist has already paid large dividends.

“Since they were both accomplished solo skaters, they’re able to do side-by-side double axels and side-by-side triple jumps with a good degree of competence,” Nicks says, pointing out aspects of the program as Wendland and Meno ran through a recent workout.

“And this year, they’re benefiting from a strength program. Look at that one-arm lift. Nice. Pretty nice.”

Some pairs teams may work years on perfecting a certain move. Meno and Wendland seem to have more trouble agreeing on the right music for their programs than they do flying over the ice with the greatest of ease.

“Music was a major, major step for us,” Wendland said. “Some teams have no problem, but I grew up skating to a lot of modern, contemporary music. . . . “

” . . . and I skated classical,” Meno said, finishing her partner’s sentence.

“So we were at both ends of the spectrum and had to find something we could both relate to,” he said.

Meno found the answer in a movie theater. She went to see Kevin Costner and ended up falling in love with the music. Meno and Wendland have been skating to Robin Hood themes ever since.

There were other potential conflicts ahead. Not the least of which appeared to be the training situation. Nicks also coaches the pairs team of Natasha Kuchiki and Todd Sand. The two teams practice on the same rink at the same time.

“Often, when you get two great skaters or teams with the same coach, training in the same arena, you now and again can get some problems,” said Nicks, always the master of understatement. “But both of these teams get on well and have good relationships. That’s made my job much easier.”

Both Sand and Kuchiki made mistakes during their long program at the nationals last month and the pair--favored to win that event and still considered the best chance for the United States to get an Olympic medal--finished third.

Wendland and Meno were among the first to give their rivals/friends a pep talk.

“We’re all good friends and we help each other,” Meno said. “The first year Scott and I were together, they really helped us a lot.”

Wendland said training together has proved to be beneficial beyond the creation of a mutual support group.

“We both want to be successful, but we’re never at each others’ throats,” he said. “There are days when something isn’t working for one team and the other team will come up and say, ‘This is what we see that might be the problem.’

“That’s what makes this training unique. There’s not too many places you’ll find top competitors helping each other to improve. And if their skating improves to a new level, then we have to improve also.

“We don’t look at the situation as a negative, so it isn’t.”

And that pretty much sums up the Wendland-Meno team. They’re definitely the new kids on this block of ice, but they’re gifted and confident and figure they can only get better as a team.

“We’ve worked very hard on our style,” Wendland said. “We’re trying to get away from being two singles skaters skating together. We’re trying to flow across the ice as one unit.”