PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Tonia Kwiatkowski's most distinguished moment is one she would like to forget.
It was June 1993, and Kwiatkowski was participating in the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Kwiatkowski was horrible that day, failing to advance and becoming the first American woman to not make it past that round.
Kwiatkowski still carries that burden.
"I've had some really great days, and they have greatly outnumbered the bad ones," she said yesterday. "My worst day, though, just happened to come at the World Championships."
And one of her best came at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships yesterday at the Providence Center.
The Broadview Heights, Ohio, resident posted marks ranging from 5.5 to 5.8 to become the surprise leader of the short program, cleanly completing a triple lutz and double toe combination, a triple toe and double axel jumps. Kwiatkowski was ranked first on seven of the nine judges' cards.
Nicole Bobek, 17, of Chicago was second with a program that featured a lot of strong spins, and she was ranked second on two of the judges' cards after stepping out on a double axel.
Favorite Michelle Kwan, 14, of Lake Arrowhead, Calif., did not receive any first-place votes and slipped on a triple lutz, but still was good enough to finish third in a routine that had little flair.
Her routine was especially pale compared with that of Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, who defended their senior pairs championship with near-perfection in the long program. The duo received six perfect scores.
Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen were second. Both teams will compete in the World Championships next month in Birmingham, England.
"It felt great. We did everything we trained to do," said Meno. "This was the level of romance we wanted to reach for some time."
Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur won the free dance last night to claim the ice dancing title last night. They won all three compulsory dances. Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow were second, and Amy Webster and Ron Kravette were third.
The women's long program, worth two-thirds of the final score, is tonight and closes the competition.
"I kind of bowed a little after that triple lutz, so I just tried to pull out the best I could," said Kwan. "But I'm still in the top three, which means I have a chance of winning it all."
This day, though, belonged to Kwiatkowski, 23, the second-oldest performer in a field of 16.
Her career has been a battle of nerves since the debacle at the World Championships, even to the point where she has had therapy sessions with her coach, Carol Heiss Jenkins, creating competitive situations with practice skaters, fans and officials participating.
"We've just taken it one day at a time," said Jenkins, a 1960 Olympic gold medalist. "What we tried to do was keep everything in perspective. The main thing was for Tonia to keep her confidence. She had a lot of things on her mind at the time."
One problem may have been that Kwiatkowski attended college while she was training for the World Championships. Last June, Kwiatkowski graduated from Baldwin-Wallace with a double major of communications and psychology.
She found it hard to juggle the academics and training. Kwiatkowski would attend classes in the morning from 8 until 11, train for three hours in the afternoon, work a part-time job coaching, then study or train at night.
And then there would be tournaments that would take her away from school for a week.
"It's very hard to stay in college and be an Olympic or world-class competitor without losing your edge," said Jenkins.
"Tonia was working on her whole person, and that's good because you can't skate forever."
"I thought it was important to graduate, and I'm glad I did," said Kwiatkowski, a member of the school's national honor society. "I was disappointed in losing, but I wasn't ready to stop competing. Now it's a different ballgame. I'm concentrating just on skating."
It was soon after last year's nationals that Jenkins told Kwiatkowski, who finished fifth, to take time off before returning to skating. That lasted two weeks.
Kwiatkowski said she was reborn.
"I committed myself completely to skating," said Kwiatkowski. "Now I'm just a performance away from going back to the nationals. It would be great to go back. After all, it was the place of my worst performance. But if it doesn't work out, so be it. That's life, and I've learned to live with it. It's been hard, though."