Twenty-five years after Scott Hamilton won the last of his four consecutive United States figure skating titles—a precursor to his 1984 Olympic gold medal—Bowling Green can claim another national champion on the ice.

With Hamilton providing commentary for NBC, Alissa Czisny won the women’s crown Jan. 24 at the U.S. championships in Cleveland. The victory qualified Czisny, who grew up in Bowling Green and is now a senior at BGSU, for the world championships, set for late March in Los Angeles. She will likely skate there for a spot in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Czisny, 21, combined a winning short program and a third-place free skate to take the title over runner-up Rachael Flatt at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. Czisny’s best previous finish at nationals was a bronze-medal effort in 2007, when she went on to place 15th in the world.

A two-time winner at the U.S. collegiate championships, in 2004 and last year, she also won Skate Canada in 2005. She was third at Skate Canada last fall.

Czisny, who trains in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is majoring in international studies, Russian and French at BGSU. Click here for more of her biographical information.