Scott Davis became America's new king of the ice Saturday with a dazzling routine that overshadowed all other men's free skates in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
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.Davis, who turns 21 on Friday, and Mitchell, 24, will represent the United States in the world championships in March. Chack, 21, bidding to join Davis in America's new wave of male skaters, will be an alternate.
Mitchell, Davis and two-time national champion Todd Eldredge ranked 1-2-3 after Friday's technical program.
But Eldredge skated a listless program after an opening triple axel-triple toe loop combination and dropped to sixth, a distressing fall for the 1990 and 1991 U.S. titlist.
Chack vaulted over the others with a strong 41/2-minute program and was the talk of the America West Arena until Davis and Mitchell, the last two skaters.
The fast-rising Davis, a Great Falls, Mont., native who trains in Colorado Springs, was eighth in the national finals in 1991 and fourth last year. His quick move up in the rankings has been similar to what Eldredge had done.
Davis started with a triple axel and went on to complete six other triple jumps. He finished with his signature, a motion-blurring spiral, the best in U.S. skating.
For Mitchell, it was more of the same bad luck, although this time he managed not to lose a spot in an important international event.