Liang Falls All the Way to 10th Place

Beatrisa Liang of Granada Hills was a sensation at last year’s national competition at Boston, where she finished sixth.

With a more ambitious program this year, she fell twice and finished 10th, a disappointing result for the precocious 13-year-old.

“I need a little work on my stamina,” said Liang, who fell on the second part of her triple toe-triple toe combination and on her triple salchow. “Next year I’ll try harder on stamina. It’s just another thing to work on.”

Amber Corwin of Hermosa Beach had the bad luck of having her music stop as she dug her toe pick into the ice for a triple lutz. Surprised by the silence, she fell; when she got up, she skated to the judges to ask for another chance.

She was allowed to pick up her routine from just before that point, but she felt her program and mood had been disrupted. The 23-year-old Long Beach State student finished eighth.

“It’s weird. I don’t think that ever happened to me,” she said. “It threw off the line of my program. It’s a little disappointing.”

Another Southland skater, Ye Bin Mok of Los Angeles, finished ninth. “It felt great out there,” said Mok, who has fought through back problems. “I’m so relieved it’s over, and I’m so happy.”

Said her coach, Peter Oppegard: “She lost her stuff for a while but she really worked hard to get it back.... I’m really proud of her.”

Thanks to a sellout crowd Saturday, the event set an attendance record with 125,345 tickets distributed to all sessions at Staples Center and the Sports Arena. That broke the record set last year at Boston of 124,372.

Saturday’s attendance of 18,035 was the largest at the U.S. championships since 1998, when a crowd of 19,082 attended the women’s free skate.