ESPN.com: Figure Skating

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Did they ever.

Kwan staged her two best performances since she stormed through the 1998 nationals on her way to silver at the Nagano Olympics. Kwan joined Olympic gold medalists Peggy Fleming and Tenley Albright as five-time national champions, and is the first woman since Linda Fratianne (1977-80) to take four in a row.

Sarah Hughes, all of 15, was nearly as good, as was Angela Nikodinov. Teen-ager Jennifer Kirk and 12-year-old Beatrisa Liang showed they could be forces before long.

That bodes well for March's world championships and for the Salt Lake City Games next year.

"The depth in our women's field in the United States is quite extraordinary," said Robin Wagner, Hughes' coach. "We had two incredible nights of skating. I think there's still more to come."

Kwan seems to face a different threat every year. But Sasha Cohen and Naomi Nari Nam, the youngsters who were the top challengers the last two years, both withdrew with injuries.

"It's lovely to see them improving each year," Kwan said. "There's always pressure in a competition and it's good to put yourself in that situation. It will be like this, except with the attention times three (at the Olympics).

"I can't say I was dominant, not at all, but I felt strong."

She looked it, despite back problems that plagued her for several weeks. Kwan's short program, which drew seven perfect 6.0s for artistry, was one for the ages. And while she messed up her triple-triple combination in the free skate - she'll need it at worlds - she improvised late in the program to get in the triple toe loop.

Two judges gave her 6.0s for artistry Saturday night, bringing her career total to 31.

Hughes isn't quite on Kwan's level yet, but she's getting there. "Every year, I'm doing better than last year," Hughes said. "The first year I was fourth, last year I was third, this year I'm second.

"Next year," she added with a laugh, "there's only one place to go."

Nikodinov, 20, had the best performance of her career.

None of the top men could say that. While Tim Goebel, 20, won his first U.S. title, the Quad King hardly put on an inspiring performance. But it was better than what five-time champion Todd Eldredge and two-time defending champ Michael Weiss managed.

Goebel hit a quadruple salchow-triple toe loop combination, but popped another quad and fell on a third. His presentation was stiff, although better than usual.

Still, he deserved the crown after Eldredge, back from a two-year hiatus, cut his quad toe to a triple and had little variety to his jumps. He managed a runner-up spot and a berth on the world team with Goebel mainly because Weiss was awful.

Weiss, the second alternate behind Matt Savoie for worlds, didn't land a jump until 3:17 into his program, and managed only two clean triples.

"It's been such a long year," said Weiss, who has been plagued toe and back injuries, "and as soon as I missed the quad, it took the gas out of me."

Goebel had plenty of gas for his jumps, but there remains criticism of his artistry. Part of his switch of coaches to Frank Carroll - who also trains Kwan and became the third coach since 1995 to have both singles champions - was with the intention of upgrading his presentation.

But he won nationals with his jumps.

"I thought it was gutsy," Carroll said. "He went for all the quads. A quad salchow-triple toe is a tremendously different and difficult thing to do, and nobody else is able to do that out there. He really separated himself from those others."

The pairs separated themselves in a negative way. Only Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman, who successfully defended their title, displayed anything world class. There were more falls (14) than couples (13) in the free skate.

Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev won their third straight dance crown, but the silver medalists are a year removed from the junior ranks and not even eligible for the Olympics.