SPOKANE, Wash. -- As Michelle Kwan's music stopped, the fans were on their feet, giving her a loud and enthusiastic ovation.

Pretty good response for an ''icky'' performance.

Kwan won her seventh Skate America title Saturday night, just a week after she agreed to be a last-minute fill-in for injured Sarah Hughes.

With a fall and another botched jump, it certainly wasn't Kwan's best program. But with everyone else bumbling and stumbling, it was more than enough to win.

''This was icky,'' Kwan said, grimacing and screwing up her nose. ''And I've been feeling great all week.''

Ann Patrice McDonough and Ukraine's Elena Liashenko crashed in warmup, but it didn't hurt either of them. McDonough, the world junior champ last year, was second and Liashenko was third.

Jennifer Kirk, who had been in second after the short program, dropped to fourth.

''We were very shocked at the results,'' said Tom Zakrajsek, McDonough's coach. ''We were pleased with how she'd done and then the marks came up. We thought she'd be in fourth. To see that she's the silver medalist is icing on the cake, really.''

Yukari Nakano of Japan and Ludmila Nelidina of Russia caused a stir by landing triple axels within a half-hour of each other. They're the first women to do the jump in international competition since Midori Ito at the 1992 Olympics.

''I saw one in warmup and I was like, was that a ...? Wow!'' Kwan said.

The men's final, which could be also one of Alexei Yagudin's last competitions, was later Saturday night. Just 22, the Olympic champion said Friday that a degenerative condition in his right hip could force him to retire.

Kwan was originally expected to sit out the season -- or at least skip the Grand Prix events -- after her disappointing bronze medal finish in Salt Lake City. After years of planning her life out months in advance, she figured she'd just go with the flow.

She got a new coach, Scott Williams, and came up with a few programs ''just in case.'' So when she got a call last Friday asking if she'd come to Skate America, she figured, why not?

And she seemed to be having more fun than she's had in years. Maybe even enough fun to convince her to go to nationals. And then maybe worlds.

''There's a very good chance I'll be there at nationals,'' she said. ''I have to work toward something, even if it's an imaginary line. If you don't compete, someone else wins. If you compete, at least you tried.

''It's like when is it enough? But it's always so tempting.''

If Kwan does go to nationals, she'll have to improve her free skate. She landed only four triple jumps, one in combination. She doubled her opening triple loop and then fell on her triple lutz.

The program didn't have her usual artistic flair, either.

''I didn't feel that great, I was a little stiff in the legs, a little uptight,'' she said. ''I see glimpses in my programs that the potential is incredible. I have lots of room to grow and I have to go home now and really train.''

In ice dancing, Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov of Ukraine staged a minor upset by winning. Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski, favored to win here after taking the bronze medal at the world championships last spring, were a surprising fourth.

Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostamorov of Russia were second, and Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the United States were third.

All three of the top couples finished behind Chait and Sakhnovski at worlds.

''I'm totally in favor of this new (judging) system,'' said Igor Shpilband, Belbin and Agosto's coach. ''It's taken away pressure from the judges, from the other judges, the coaches, people in the federations. It's freeing them up and they don't have to answer to anybody.''

Even before the pairs debacle at the Salt Lake City Olympics, ice dancing was a favorite target of figure skating critics. The finishes are predictable, with couples moving up only when others retire. There's not even any movement in individual events, with couples usually finishing the free dance in the same spot they were in after the compulsory dance.

Some of that was still true at Skate America. The top three couples were 1-2-3 in compulsory dance, original dance and the free dance. And Grushina and Goncharov won despite making an obvious mistake.

On one lift, where he carried her while she faced him, she was supposed to brace her skate between his knees. But her foot slipped, throwing them both off balance.

''We're very happy to have first place,'' Goncharov said. ''We were a little nervous.''

But the new judging system seemed to work in one respect. A computer now randomly picks which judges' scores count and no one -- not even the skaters or the judges -- know whose were used.

In years past, Chait and Sakhnovski probably would have won regardless of how they skated. But they were fourth in the compulsory dance, and that's where they stayed.

''I don't want to say it's a perfect system,'' Shpilband said. ''But it's a much better system. Please don't change it.''