Clean run for Lysacek

SPOKANE, Wash. -- It had become a head thing. Evan Lysacek acknowledged that. He'd kept hearing that he couldn't skate a clean short program so often he was wondering whether it was true.

"When you keep reading about it and hearing about it, it's hard not to think about it," Lysacek said yesterday, after he'd finished upright and exuberant and took a slender (as in 85-100ths of a point) lead over three-time champion Johnny Weir at the US Figure Skating Championships at Spokane Arena. "Even my family was saying, 'C'mon, this time make it clean.' I said, 'I'm trying, people.' "

The irony was, Lysacek had always been money in the short. When he won the global bronze medal in Moscow two years ago, it was his scintillating short that put him within reach of the podium. Somehow, since then, it had become the longest 2 minutes 50 seconds of his life.

At last year's nationals, Lysacek was third in the short, on the verge of not making the Olympic team. At the Games, he was 10th. At worlds, he was eighth. Every time, he found himself climbing out of a self-dug hole in the free skate. "Why is this such a big issue?" Lysacek asked himself.

It didn't have to be a passion play (although his music here was "Passion" from "The Last Temptation of Christ"). All Lysacek had to do was land his triple lutz-triple toe combination, his triple axel, and his triple flip and keep from spinning out of the building or tripping over his feet.

"Today was this weight lifted off my shoulders," said the 21-year-old Lysacek, after he'd posted a personal-best 78.99 to Weir's 78.14. "This was my goal today -- to show anyone that has criticized my short program that when I'm really well trained and prepared and want to win something that nothing can stop me."

For a while, after he'd pulled out of last month's Grand Prix final with a hip injury, Lysacek wasn't sure whether he'd be able to compete here. "Is it or is it not going to happen?" he wondered. So when he made it through yesterday, he pumped his fists and covered his face. "I was so happy and relieved, I can't put it into words," Lysacek said.

All the 22-year-old Weir wanted was to get through the afternoon on two feet after a rough season marred by a hip injury, which also forced him to abandon the Grand Prix final. "I'm so happy that I didn't fall on my butt," he said, "and I was able to get through it."

Even though he's the first man to win three straight titles since Brian Boitano in 1988, Weir found himself cast as the underdog to Lysacek, who has never lost to him at the senior global level. "A lot of people are counting me out of this championship," Weir acknowledged.

So when he heard the ovation for Lysacek and heard his scores, Weir knew he had to match him, and he came close. "I'm in second," he said. "That makes me an underdog, but I don't feel like one. In my head, I feel like I'm in first place."

The other battle is for the third seat on the plane to Tokyo for the world championships in March. With Michael Weiss, Tim Goebel, and Matt Savoie departed since last year, it's anyone's spot. For now, it belongs to Ryan Bradley, the former junior champ who has been stuck in the shadows for six years.

He made his breakout with a Technicolor costume that snapped the judges' eyes open. "I wanted the tackiest, brightest colors you can find," the 23-year-old Bradley said. "I wanted it to be a normal suit, but in awful colors that should never be near each other. I look in the mirror and it just makes me laugh. You have to squint to look at it. How can you not enjoy something like that?"

Kimmie Meissner, last year's surprise world champion, enjoyed herself hugely last night, winning the short program by more than 3 points over Beatrisa Liang to put one hand on the women's crown abdicated by Sasha Cohen.

"There's a little bit of pressure on me and I was really feeling it yesterday," said the 17-year-old Meissner, who was second last year and went on to place sixth in her Olympic debut before claiming the global crown a month later in Calgary. "Tonight was kind of relaxing."

It was totally energizing for the 18-year-old Liang, who's on the verge of making her first world team in her seventh try. "It's definitely exciting," said the Santa Monica City College freshman, whose bold and crisp skate put her 34-100ths of a point ahead of Emily Hughes. "I just have to keep my mind straight."

Hughes, who was third last year and got a last-minute ticket to Olympus after Michelle Kwan pulled out injured, is bidding to do what older sister Sarah didn't do -- win the national title. "I always hope to go out there and do a good program and that's what I did," said Hughes, who turns 18 today. "I'm really looking forward to Saturday."

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.