FIGURE SKATING / U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Safety Pins Rescue Harding Gillooly

Tonya Harding Gillooly’s dress came undone. Scott Davis lost his pants. Nicole Bobek skated by the seat of hers.

So Friday wasn’t a day for making great fashion statements in the U.S. figure skating championships at the America West Arena. The participants in the men’s and women’s technical programs were there to skate, and their performances were, collectively, graceful, awkward, exhilarating, heart-breaking, dynamic and sometimes adventurous.

“Embarrassing, I guess,” was the adjective Gillooly used after both clasps on the back of her dress came loose, forcing her to interrupt her program only moments after it began, just as she was about to ascend into a triple jump, and ask for a restart.

With the aid of safety pins, Gillooly “pulled myself together, literally,” and skated one of her most confident, error-free performances since she won the national championship in 1991.

She is in second place behind the favorite, Olympic bronze medalist Nancy Kerrigan, but either skater could be the champion after tonight’s freestyle program, which accounts for two-thirds of the final score.

Like Kerrigan, Mark Mitchell, one of the men’s co-favorites, skated a clean, uneventful program to take the lead after the technical competition Friday. So, for that matter, did Scott Davis as he sneaked into second place ahead of the other co-favorite, two-time national champion Todd Eldredge.

It was in the dressing room after the competition that Davis’ fun began.

Asked if he watched Mitchell perform, Davis said: “Not really. Actually, I was trying to find my pants. Somebody in the changing room mistakenly grabbed my pants. I sat there in my underwear for a while.”

The men will skate their decisive freestyle programs this afternoon. The first two finishers will represent the United States in the March 10-14 World Championships at Prague in the Czech Republic. The women can send the first three finishers.

If the standings hold up, Bobek, who is in third place, will be making her first senior world championship appearance at age 15 in her mother’s native country.

Bobek has had a wild ride, although it presumably is coincidental that she once was sponsored by George Steinbrenner.

Only eight days before the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival at Los Angeles, she suffered a concussion in a practice fall. She still entered the competition and won. Only one month before last year’s U.S. championships at Orlando, Fla., she was hospitalized for an emergency appendectomy and ended up also having a collapsed lung. Still, she was back on the ice in time for the nationals and finished seventh.

Late last year, in the world junior championships, she cut a four-inch deep gash in her leg with the blade of her skate during the technical program. But she refused to leave the ice. “Big deal. Am I going to stop and whimper about something like that?” she said.

She also skated her freestyle program the next day, finishing 16th overall, before going to the hospital for eight stitches.

Friday night, she turned a planned triple lutz into a double, and, then, still needing a triple jump as one of her required elements, improvised and threw in a triple flip later in the program.

“I’ve never seen the program in my life that she did tonight,” said Kathy Casey, who coaches Bobek at Colorado Springs, Colo. “She has never done a triple flip in competition. She has never done a triple flip in that program.

“I’m a pretty straight, disciplined coach. But I can’t be with Nicole. She’s a pretty free spirit. She skates by the seat of her pants. To break that spirit would be a mistake.”

Speaking of free spirits, Michelle Kwan of Torrance is in sixth place in the women’s competition at age 12. Frank Carroll, who coaches her at Lake Arrowhead, wanted her to remain in the juniors for at least one more year of seasoning, but she took her U.S. Figure Skating Assn. tests to qualify for the seniors while he was out of the country.

With Kwan in the seniors, Michelle Cho, 13, of Costa Mesa won the junior championship Friday. Her coach, John Nicks, wasn’t surprised after watching her win a prestigious senior international competition earlier this winter at Lillehammer, Norway.

Before leaving for Norway, Nicks obtained a copy of a letter to the USFSA from rival coaches who were protesting the selection of a novice for the competition. After he showed the letter to Cho, he said he noticed a new fire in her eyes.

“She began to understand that figure skating competition is not all hearts and flowers,” he said.

Cho, whose mother played basketball for South Korea’s Olympic team, is concerned that she will outgrow figure skating. She stands 4 feet 11 now. “Mr. Nicks said he doesn’t want to teach anyone who is taller than he is,” she said.

She quickly turned to Nicks, whose induction into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame Friday did not add to his physical stature, and asked, “Did you want me to say that?”

What is she afraid of? She has a first-degree black belt in taekwondo.