updated 6:28 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2007

SPOKANE, Wash. - Kimmie Meissner has a national title, and that’s all anybody needs to know.

Never mind that the world champion finished third in the free skate, and only won because Emily Hughes toppled over on a jump. Or that if Michelle Kwan were here, she’d likely have a 10th title.

When people look at the results from this year’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships, all they’ll see is that Meissner won the title.

“I’m really excited that I’m the leader right now, just because coming into this competition, there was no national champion here,” she said. “Now there is.”

Meissner’s third-place finish in the free skate was enough to take the title after Hughes fell on a triple flip. There’s an automatic one-point deduction for a fall, and it was the difference between silver and gold for the Olympians.

Meissner finished with 181.68 points. Hughes, who turned 18 on Friday, had 180.86. Alissa Czisny won the free skate, but wound up third overall because she had so much ground to make up after her fifth-place finish in the short program.

“I am aware,” Hughes said, nodding her head when asked if she realized that one jump cost her the title. “And it’s going to push me to March.”

Evan Lysacek skated the performance of a lifetime Saturday, overwhelming three-time champion Johnny Weir and everybody else. He won the title with his first jump, a quad-triple combination, then spent the next four minutes reminding everybody how spectacular skating can be when it’s done right.

“That was something,” he said. “It’s hard to put into words how much I wanted to win this title.”

Lysacek finished with 248.88 points. Weir, who had the misfortune of skating after Lysacek, looked dull for what might be the first time in his life. He fell on one jump, popped another and by the end of the night, had tumbled all the way to third.

Ann Heisenfelt / AP Evan Lysacek celebrates after completing his free skate program on Saturday night.

He finished with 213.20 points, six points behind surprising Ryan Bradley.

Meissner, who turned 17 in October, was the first woman since Kristi Yamaguchi in 1991 to win a world title before earning the crown in her own country. With Kwan and Sasha Cohen both absent for the first time in a decade, Meissner should have had little trouble filling in the gap in her resume.

But she’s never been the favorite at this level, and she seemed to struggle with the expectations. She put a hand down on her opening triple lutz and couldn’t tack on the triple toe loop that was supposed to complete the combination.

“I forgot about it and just kept going. I knew I had the whole program I could make up the points I missed on that,” she said.

She did a triple flip-triple toe combo, but the landing on the second jump was shaky. She did do a three-jump combination — double axel-double toe-double loop — that was impressive, especially because it came 15 seconds from the end of the 4-minute program.

She has great speed and uses her edges better than most. But her presentation could still use a little work. She had some nice moments to “Galicie Flamenco,” clicking her hands like a Spanish dancer at one point. But she didn’t have nearly the fire or sass flamenco numbers deserve.

That left the door open for Hughes, the little sister of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes.

She almost made it.

Matthew Stockman / Getty Images Emily Hughes' day got off to a rough start when she realized 20 minutes before warm-ups that she had left her dress at her hotel. Her coach was able to retrieve the dress in time and Hughes went on to finish second.

Hughes’ day got off to a rough start when she realized 20 minutes before she was due on the ice for warm-ups that her dress was still back at the hotel. Coach Bonni Retzkin rushed to grab it, and made it back to the arena with about five minutes to spare.

“I had the best warm-up of my life,” Hughes said, laughing.

A pretty good program, too.

She’s all about power and guts, and both were on full display Saturday afternoon. She’d finished third in the short program, and knew it would take her very best to win a national title.

Her opening jump, a double axel, was spectacular, so high people in the front rows had to crane their necks to see her. She did three jump combinations, including a triple lutz-double toe-double loop combo that looked effortless.

The crowd began applauding, and it looked as if Hughes might be on her way to an upset. But the rotation on her triple flip was delayed and she couldn’t hold the landing, crashing hard to the ice.

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You don’t grow up in a family of six kids without developing some toughness, though, and Hughes kept right on attacking through the final note.

“Even though I fell, I knew I could get up and keep going,” Hughes said. “If I get up and keep going, I still have a chance. I’m really happy with myself that I did the last two jumps.

“It was really close so, next year.”

Czisny has always been a tough one to figure out. She has more grace and talent than 10 skaters combined, but falters when it matters most. After botching the short program, though, she had nothing to lose Saturday.

Skating to music from “Sabrina,” she did Audrey Hepburn proud. She was classy and elegant, from her beautiful lines to her gorgeous black dress with white trim. Everything was effortless, including a multiple-position layback spin in which she began leaned completely over to one side and then went into a Biellmann, pulling one leg back and up to her head.

She did five clean triple jumps, two in combination. She two-footed another triple jump, but the rest of her jumps were smooth, high and controlled, the kind of technique coaches wish just one of their students would have. Her spirals drew oohs and aahs, and her final spin was so quick she was a blur on the ice.

She pumped her fists when she was done, and the audience gave her a standing ovation.

Though winning the free skate would have given Czisny the title under the old judging system, she wasn’t about to complain.

“It was really exciting for me to win the long program,” she said. “For me just to have done my best is probably what makes me happiest.”

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