ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Michelle Kwan began the 1999-00 figure skating season with a victory over defending world champion Maria Butyskaya, but couldn't keep the United States from falling to Russia in the Keri Lotion Figure Skating Classic on Saturday night.

Featuring all four reigning world champions, the Russian squad dominated the event, winning all but one of the head-to-head matchups in the meeting of the top two figure skating nations in the world.

Kwan salvaged the Americans' evening by garnering a perfect 6.0 from one judge and 5.9s from the other four, in presentation.

Butyskaya fell early in her performance and would later stumble again.

Though lacking the intensity of other events on the season, the Keri Lotion competition usually provides an early indication of how top skaters stand.

Once again, Kwan and Butyskaya were going back and forth.

The Russian upended Kwan at last year's World Championships, but Kwan has won the last two meetings.

In the men's competition, two-time world champion Alexei Yagudin and Evvgeny Plushenko finished ahead of 1996 world champion and five-time U.S. champion Todd Elredge, who overcame a missed jump, and defending U.S. champion Michael Weiss.

Weiss, third at the World Championships last year, wasn't fazed by the setback.

Russia started the event with a victory by two-time world pairs champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze over Americans Kyoko and John Zimmerman, then Ilia Klimkin defeated Matt Savoie in the junior men's portion.

In the junior women's competition, Victoria Voltchkova defeated Sasha Cohen while the Russian ice dancing team of Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikow beat Americans Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev.

The event will be televised by ABC on Sunday, Oct. 10.