Feb. 11, 2000 4:37 PM AP

CLEVELAND (AP) All week, Johnny Weir was the best. Best in practice, best in the short program.

When it came time for the crucial free skate, though, the prospect of being the best was too much.

"That was the hardest thing, knowing I was in first and trying to hold onto it," he said. "I let that overrun all my thoughts and just didn't skate very well."

Weir botched his free skate Friday, dropping him to fifth in junior men at the U.S. Championships. That opened the door for Evan Lysacek, who moved from fifth to first with the cleanest program of the day.

"It's kind of weird, kind of a shock," said Lysacek, who won the novice title last season. "It will kind of hit me in a couple of days."

Weir looked shell-shocked afterward, too. After nailing a perfect triple axel in warmup, he fell on the jump about a minute into his program and his hopes for a gold medal went right down with him.

He popped a flip, fell on a triple loop, did a single axel and then doubled what should have been a triple toe loop at the end of his program.

"I let being in first overrun all my thoughts and just didn't skate well," he said.

If it makes Weir feel any better, no one else was perfect, either. Lysacek was the closest, but he fell on the triple toe in his triple lutz-triple toe combination. His spins also were short.

Parker Pennington, who finished second, was the only one to land a triple axel, though it was a little cheated. He also stepped out of a double axel and fell on a triple lutz. Benjamin Miller finished third.

"I was kind of shocked when I saw first. I thought it was in the free skate," Lysacek said. "I couldn't believe it. It was amazing."

In junior dance, Emilie Nussear and Brandon Forsyth are in first place after winning the original dance. Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, who won both compulsory dances, are in second. The free dance is Saturday.

DARTBOARD SKATING: What Dick Button saw in the men's short program reminded him of a parlor game.

"It was like a virtual dartboard of triple jumps and combinations and quads," said Button, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and ABC's main analyst for coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "They didn't stick to the dartboard."

Button was referring to defending champion Michael Weiss and Timothy Goebel, who were 1-2 after the short program despite tepid performances marked by inconsistent jumps. Weiss and Goebel are the main American practitioners of the quadruple jump, but Weiss couldn't get around four times on his try and Goebel stepped out on his landing.

"I'm sure they will be more successful (Saturday) in the long program," added Button, who wondered if both skaters had too much support in the audience.

"It's doubly nerve-wracking when you have all of your college and high school mates coming to watch you," Button said of Goebel, who trains at the host Winterhurst Figure Skating Club. "And Michael Weiss has a contingent of 60 family and friends. It's got to weigh on them."

RUSSIAN AROUND: When is a Russian not a Russian? In figure skating, of course.

Three of the top five ice dance teams at the U.S. Championships had a Russian man. Across the Atlantic, at the European championships in Austria, several Russian women were competing under different flags, including local hope Julia Lautova.

Though she moved back to her hometown of Moscow in 1996, Lautova has skated for Austria since 1995 and is an Austrian citizen. Skating for Austria gives her a better chance of making international competitions, since the Russian team is loaded with talent and can only qualify three for the major championships.

Switch countries is nothing new for skaters. Americans have taken advantage of other countries' smaller fields of competitors for years.

Other skaters competing for adopted countries at Europeans include: Finland's Alisa Drei, the daughter of a famous Russian judge; Germany's Zoia Douchine, who beat Tanja Szewczenko this year in the national championships; and Armenia's Julia Lebedeva, who once placed sixth in the Russian nationals.

Marina Anissina, who helped Gwendal Peizerat of France stop the Russian streak of gold medals at Europeans, actually won two junior world championships for the Soviet Union with Ilya Averbukh.

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