Wagner claims Four Continents for first int'l title

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- American Ashley Wagner had the best free skate of her career Saturday night to win the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships for her first international title.

The U.S. champion skated an elegant, clean program to finish with 128.34-point score that left her with a career-high total of 192.41.

That was enough to edge two-time world champion Mao Asada of Japan, who settled for second at 188.62 after touching a hand to the ice while attempting to land a triple lutz and having a triple axel downgraded by judges.

It marked the first time Wagner - who won the national title two weeks ago - has beaten Asada, the 2010 Olympic silver medalist.

American Caroline Zhang had a career-best 117.44 points to take the bronze at 176.18. Japan's Kanako Murakami was fourth at 169.32, and American Agnes Zawadzki fifth at 157.23.

Earlier, U.S. champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dancing short program, and China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong topped the pairs field after the short program.

Canadian star Patrick Chan won the men's title Friday night.

In ice dancing, Davis and White took a step toward successfully defending their title.

The 2011 world champions and 2010 Olympic silver medalists finished their program with a mark of 72.15, edging reigning Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, who had 71.60 points.

"We felt really good out there," White said. "Everyone likes to talk about altitude, but we tried hard to counter, and it helped our performance. The characters were better portrayed. Technically, we need to work on our levels, so we'll get back to work on that."

Moir feels good about his and Virtue's chances Sunday in the free dance.

"It was a good skate for Tessa and I the way that we attacked it," Moir said. "I made a couple of mistakes, and there are some places where we can make up some points at worlds, but all-in-all, the changes we have done in the last month - and specifically in the weeks since nationals - have really worked well. We had a strong skate, so we have to be happy with that, and it sets us up well for tomorrow."

Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje were third at 64.23, and two-time U.S. silver medalists Maia and Alex Shibutani were fourth with 63.38.

In pairs, Sui and Han, the two-time and reigning world junior champions, had a score of 66.75 points, more than three points clear of 2012 U.S. Champions Caydee Denney and John Coughlin at 63.35.

"Today, we did our best in the short program," Cong said through an interpreter. "It's very amazing and wonderful. We feel so happy, and my partner did very well. Congratulations to the other teams."

The Colorado Springs-based Denney and Coughlin have only been partners since May.

"It felt like I hoped it would skating at home, and I felt the support from our friends and family," Coughlin said. "It was nice to put out a good performance for them and for ourselves. Our components improved greatly from our last Grand Prix score, so I'm excited about that."

They felt good about their ability to take their program to an even higher level than nationals.

"Going into this, we felt we could improve on this program and we could improve on this from nationals, and I felt like we did that," Denney said.

Americans Mary Beth Marley and Rockne Brubaker were third with 62.42 points.

"We're just really happy with our skate today," Brubaker said. "We were pretty strong on things, and this was definitely a step in the right direction. Between nationals and here, it's definitely how you want to be skating here."

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.