Abbott, Mroz rise to top

So much for the long-distance rivalry between the men who had won the last five national titles, Evan Lysacek, who trains on the West Coast, and Johnny Weir, who trains on the East.

Suddenly it has turned into a local battle between Jeremy Abbott and Brandon Mroz, who train in the same Colorado Springs rink under the same coach, Tom Zakrajsek.

Abbott and Mroz finished 1-2 in Sunday’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships, putting each on the senior world team for the first time. Lysacek was third and Weir fifth. Bradley and Mroz were the only two who landed clean quadruple jumps.

And the fourth-place man, Ryan Bradley, also trains at the World Arena with Zakrajsek.

“We’re all kind of rivals in a way, but we’re all great friends,” Mroz said. “We’re all pushing each other and trying to outdo each other.”

Zakrajsek is believed to be the first coach in 50 years to have three U.S. singles skaters at worlds.

The third, Rachael Flatt, qualified for the March event in Los Angeles with a second-place finish Saturday night in the women’s competition. A fifth Zakrajsek athlete, Alexe Gilles, was ninth in the women’s competition.

Lysacek, who had won the previous two U.S. titles, claimed the final world team place. He felt the rivalry between him and Weir has spurred skaters such as Abbott and Mroz.

“It has pushed not just he [Weir] and I but a lot of other competitors to try to steal one of those spots,” Lysacek said.

Three-time champion Weir still tried to make a case to the media for being named to the world team, as rules allow, based on his experience and bronze medal at the 2008 worlds.

Ironically, Lysacek may have gotten the last jab in the rivalry by not skating well enough to beat Mroz.

U.S. Figure Skating officials knew they would have been pilloried for replacing a national silver medalist who skated as well as Mroz did with the poor skater Weir was in both the long and short programs.

Mroz, who turned 18 barely a month ago, has moved from second at the juniors to second at senior in a season. He lost the free skate by less than a point to the more refined but technically nervous skating of Abbott, 23, who had finished fourth a year ago.

As the event went on, not even an impressive win in the short program could lighten the pressure Abbott felt from being a favorite after years of struggling to get past also-ran status. In the free skate, he popped one jump and put his hand down on the landing of another.

Abbott finished with 241.89 points to 229.70 for Mroz, 229.10 for Lysacek, 221.40 for Bradley and 203.99 for Weir. He is the first senior champion for Zakrajsek, 45, a suburban Cleveland native in his 20th year of coaching.

“I felt awful leading up to this event, I felt awful today, I felt awful on the ice,” Abbott said. “I wasn’t really happy with my performance, but I was able to keep control and keep mistakes to a minimum.”

Lysacek finished fourth in the free skate after falling on a quad attempt.

“I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t nervous, I was just kind of wobbly, I guess,” Lysacek said.

Mroz, a high school senior from St. Louis, not only hit the quad but landed two triple axels and a triple-triple combination. He had the highest technical score in the free skate.

“Over the season, we took a big leap, especially training with these guys on a daily basis,” Mroz said. “I’ve put a lot of hard things in my program.”

The three Zakrajsek-coached men share at least two training sessions a day. That could lead to constant attempts at one-upsmanship.

“We’re very conscious of that,” Zakrajsek said. “It’s not the daily grind -- every day, in your face.”

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phersh@tribune.com