Feb. 10, 2000 10:16 PM AP

By BARRY WILNER

AP Sports Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) His warmup shirt said "In It To Win It." Even though his quad wasn't in it during the short program Thursday night, Michael Weiss did, indeed, win it in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The defending champion did just enough to hold off hometown jumping jack Tim Goebel and surprising Matt Savoie. Each got three first-place votes.

Trifun Zivanovic, last year's runner-up, was fourth after the short, worth one-third of the total score.

"To be in first after the short, you can't complain," Weiss said.

Weiss, in the midst of a disappointing season plagued by a stress fracture in his ankle, never got high enough for his opening quadruple toe loop. He cut it to a triple toe, the easiest of the triple jumps.

"I was doing my crossovers and I noticed I was a little close to the boards and it threw off my rhythm," Weiss said. "It didn't throw me off that much, but just enough to be thinking about my rhythm."

The bronze medalist in the 1999 worlds didn't have much rhythm on his next jump, a triple axel-triple toe combination. He cut the second jump to a double toe.

"The axel was good," he claimed, although he was noticeably tilted in the air. "I fought through it. When I miss something like that, I focus on the little things that will get it back, the sharpness and preciseness, holding spins a little longer. That's what the judges are looking for."

Skating to "On the Waterfront," Weiss had some strong spins and a good finish, but it hardly was a spectacular performance on a night marked by so-so routines. It's been years since such a mediocre short program was good enough for the top spot in the nationals.

Goebel, of the host Winterhurst Figure Skating Club, is the the first American to land a quad in competition, but couldn't hit it Thursday. He got around four times on his quad salchow, but stepped out on the landing.

He went almost immediately to a triple axel-triple toe loop. The axel was rough, but he hung in to complete the combination.

"Tim can do a triple toe from a standstill, but that's what I like to see, a gutsy skater," coach Carol Heiss Jenkins said.

Where Goebel really prospered was in his artistic marks. He wasn't particularly animated, but he also wasn't as wooden as in the past in his program to "Caravan."

"Lori and I have really worked on that," Goebel said, referring to choreographer Lori Nichol. "The marks are clearly showing I'm starting to become a very well-balanced skater."

Still, he'll likely need the quad in Saturday's free skate. Of course, this is a guy who landed three of them in one long program in Skate America.

"I wanted to skate good enough to be in the top three, so I would have a good enough shot at taking the title," Goebel said.

Zivanovic skated second, which might have hurt his marks, which ranged from 5.1 to 5.5. Or maybe it was the costume for his outrageous routine from "The Mummy."

Savoie went last and hit everything, albeit slowly, to "Paint It Black." His triple axel, triple flip-triple toe combination and triple lutz out of footwork were the best of the night, and he had a wide smile on his face after landing his final jump.

"I don't think it was to my advantage" to skate 15th," Savoie said. "I was pretty nervous, but I'm pleased I could skate so well for me."

Earlier Thursday, Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev repeated as ice dancing champions. They added a victory in the free dance to victories in the compulsories and original dance to make the U.S. team for next month's world championships.

America's rising dance couple, Jamie Silverstein and Justin Pekarek, made their first world team as seniors by finishing second. Silverstein and Pekarek swept the major junior dance crowns last year.

The women get started Friday night.