Tchernyshev, Lang Solid for Olympic Spot

After scoring one perfect score of 6.0 Thursday night, Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev seem well on the way to their fourth consecutive U.S. Figure Skating national championship and their first Olympic berth after the first two rounds of the ice dancing competition at Staples Center.

Lang, of Allegan, Mich., and Tchernyshev, a transplanted Russian who became an American citizen last year, drew the small crowd to its feet with their moves choreographed to the original dance, the Spanish Medley. Their perfect score came on the presentation mark.

The original dance is worth 30% of the final score. Each couple Thursday could chose their own music but the interpretation had to fit the rhythm and tempo of the Spanish Medley.

In second place are 17-year-old Canadian Tanith Belbin and 19-year-old Benjamin Agosto of Beverly Hills, Mich. The U.S. will send two ice dancing teams to the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, but because Belbin is not a U.S. citizen, the couple are ineligible.

Beata Handra, 25, of San Francisco, and Charles Sinek, 33, of Lexington, Mass., are in third place and would qualify for the Olympics if they remain there. Handra and Sinek never have finished better than fourth at nationals.

The surprising fourth-place couple, Melissa Gregory and Dennis Petukhov, also are not eligible for the Olympics because Petukhov is not a U.S. citizen. That leaves Jessica Joseph and Brandon Forsyth, the fifth-place couple, to battle Handra and Sinek for the second spot.