ST. PAUL, Minn. – Polina Edmunds looked a little tentative, which was understandable.  Edmunds never had been in the position she was Saturday night, having won Thursday’s short program to take a substantial lead over past champions Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold into the long program at the U.S. Championships.

Edmunds did not crack.  She nailed jump after jump, spin after spin, making just one small mistake, an under-rotated triple jump.  When her scores went up, Edmunds was first in the free skate and still first overall with only Gold left to skate.

“I’m happy I skated a clean long program,” Edmunds would say.  “That was my goal, to skate two clean programs.  I really think I showed a good champion mentality.”

She is not the champion, though, because Gold delivered one of the greatest long program skates in the history of nationals, making the short program brain cramp that left her 7.69 points behind Edmunds seem like the aberration it was.