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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993                   TAG: 9301240191
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

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KERRIGAN WINS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The long climb to a national championship is over for Nancy Kerrigan. She'll have to do a lot better to get to the top of the world.

The 23-year-old Kerrigan, a bronze medalist in last year's Olympics, had just enough to beat onrushing Lisa Ervin in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Phoenix. While Ervin was putting on an inspired show in the free skate, Kerrigan, of Stoneham, Mass., appeared to play it safe.

Kerrigan, skating in her fifth nationals as a senior, fell on a triple lutz and hit three other triple jumps. Her performance lacked vitality and likely wouldn't hold up in the world championships at Prague in March, where she will be favored.

It held up in the nationals because Tonya Harding Gillooly, the 1991 U.S. champion, had a rough outing. Gillooly fell once, stepped out of another triple jump and did not attempt her trademark triple axel, the toughest jump.

She slipped to fourth and missed out on a trip to the worlds, an upset because Gillooly has been to the world championships the past two years and was fourth in the Albertville Olympics.

Her place on the U.S. team for the world championships went to Ervin, a spunky 15-year-old who surged from fifth with the best free skate of the night. Ervin has gone from fourth in last year's nationals to second in the 1993 world junior championships and now to second in America.

Scott Davis became America's new king of the ice with a dazzling routine that overshadowed all other men's free skates. Favorite Mark Mitchell, trying to dodge his run of bad luck in big events, was second after falling on his first jump, and Michael Chack improved from sixth after the technical program to third.

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