FIGURE SKATING U.S. WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS : Kerrigan Makes Best of Bad Situation

If Saturday night’s performances at the America West Arena are an indication, there is a void large enough to drive a Zamboni through in U.S. women’s figure skating. Kristi Yamaguchi, are you paying attention?

To no one’s surprise among the crowd of 9,968, Nancy Kerrigan, runner-up to Yamaguchi in last year’s national and world championships and the Olympic bronze medalist, won her first U.S. title.

But her performance in the freestyle program could be described as sparkling only in comparison to those of most of the other contenders. The only figure skating aficionados who could have been pleased with the slips, trips and falls they witnessed here were those who feared in recent years that the women’s competition was turning into a triple jump contest. This was no better than a double jump contest.

“I left a little room for myself to keep improving and work a little harder,” said Kerrigan, who was pleased with her placement, not with her performance, which included one fall and only three triple jumps.

Kerrigan, 23, has six weeks before she competes in the March 10-14 World Championships at Prague in the Czech Republic.

She will be joined there by Lisa Ervin and Tonia Kwiatkowski, who finished second and third here, respectively. They are both coached at Lakewood, Ohio, by 1960 Olympic champion Carol Heiss Jenkins. She competed in her first World Championships in 1953 at age 13. Ervin is only a little less precocious at 15.

Ervin and Kwiatkowski leaped past Olympian Tonya Harding Gillooly, who has yet to regain the form she had when she upset Yamaguchi to win the national championship in 1991.

She became the first U.S. woman to perform a triple axel in that competition. But she has landed only one since and did not even attempt the jump Saturday night, when she dropped from second in the standings after Friday’s technical program to fourth. She cleanly landed only two triple jumps.

An asthma sufferer, Gillooly, 22, said that her physical problems were compounded when she caught a cold Friday night.

“I tried to go out and do my best, but I just didn’t have the air to do it,” she said. “There’s always next year.”

The U.S. Figure Skating Assn. is counting on that, not only for the sake of Gillooly but for all of its women.

And there is hope for the future.

Although the judges scored her lower than Kerrigan, Ervin had a smoother skate than any of the other contenders. She was the only one who never had to brush any ice off her bottom.

“This is a dream come true,” said Ervin, a three-time world junior runner-up who was in fifth place entering the freestyle program. “I never expected this. Seriously.”

Jenkins said she has been grooming Ervin for the 1998 Winter Olympics.

“But she keeps talking about ‘94,” Jenkins said.

Another 15-year-old, Nicole Bobek, had a rougher time. She dropped to fifth after finishing third in the technical program, but she has the spunk that no doubt will make it easy for her write this one off as a learning experience.

Right below her, in sixth place, was Michelle Kwan, a 12-year-old from Costa Mesa who ignored the advice of her coach, Frank Carroll, and chose to bypass the junior competition. But she proved she belongs with the seniors, landing more triple jumps--four--than any of the contenders.

In seventh place was 15-year-old Caroline Song of Fullerton, last year’s junior champion.

But the best hope of all for the immediate future is Yamaguchi, who is touring as a professional and has not yet announced whether she will defend her Olympic championship next year at Lillehammer, Norway.

Other gold medalists, such as Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt, have indicated that they will take advantage of an International Skating Union rule that allows professionals to apply for reinstatement. But Yamaguchi reportedly is still trying to make up her mind.

If she saw Saturday night’s performances, that might have helped. She has until April 1 to send her application to the ISU. The USFSA will pay for the postage.