SPOKANE, Wash. — Rachael Flatt, the skater who brought the term “scholar-athlete” to new levels, is going on the best field trip of them all — the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“I’m very excited with how things went,” said Colorado Springs’ Flatt after the top-scoring performance of her life. “I was a little shaky on the flip toe, but I thought I recovered well and the rest of my program was really strong.”

Flatt, third after the short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, skated a near-flawless free skate to score a career-high 200.11 total and win her first senior national title.

“I think as I went through the program, I continued to get stronger,” Flatt said. “Right before my triple loop I felt a little weak and just decided to push through it.”

Mirai Nagasu, 16, leader after the short program and the night’s final skater, was second with 188.78 points and secured the second Olympic team spot.

Ashley Wagner, who skated the most crowd-pleasing program, was third with 184.70.

Cohen, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist and skating in competition for the first time since 2006, was fourth with 174.28 points after falling on a triple flip.

The U.S. qualified just two skaters, instead of the usual three, to the Olympics for only the second time since 1924.

“I think the most important thing for me was just taking the speed that I had gained throughout the program and continuing, and improving upon it,” Flatt said. 

When she finished, Flatt knew she had done something special. She put both hands on her head and turned her face to the roof, smiling.

Flatt, 17, became the first Broadmoor Skating Club senior ladies skater to make the Olympic team since 1988, when Jill Trenary and Caryn Kadavy qualified for Calgary.

Her coach at The Broadmoor, Tom Zakrajsek, finally got himself an Olympian. Last week, another Broadmoor skater coached by Zakrajsek, Ryan Bradley, was fourth, missing the Olympic team by one spot.

Flatt, 17, a senior at Cheyenne Mountain High School, landed seven triples and was the only one in the top group to land a triple-triple combination.

Before coming here, Flatt, a straight-A student, sent off nine college applications to Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Duke, UCLA and the University of Denver.

On Friday, she was one of 10 skaters honored as elite scholar-athletes by the U.S. Figure Skating Association.The emphasis on scholastics undoubtedly starts at home in Colorado Springs.

Mom, Jody, is a retired biotech scientist. Father, Jim, has a Ph.D in chemical engineering and heads a biofuels company. Both parents were in Spokane, along with grandfather Horace Flatt, who made the trip from Terrell, Texas.

She has said if she made the Olympic team, she would participate in the Opening Ceremony, then fly back home to attend high school classes until the skating competition gets underway the second half of the Games.

Flatt placed fifth in last season’s world championships, and was second twice at nationals. Yet she was overshadowed in this competition by Cohen, a crowd darling who fell short in an otherwise remarkable comeback to competition after a four-year absence.

Known as the steadiest, if not most spectacular, skater in the field, Flatt showed grace under pressure. Just one point separated the top three skaters going into Saturday’s free skate.

“It was a good program, but I still have things to work on,” Flatt said.

Still she pulled off what was likely the most technically difficult program of the night with poise, including landing three combination jumps.

The most impressive was one three-jump sequence late in the program, when a skater’s legs are usually burning with fatigue. But judges reward jumps that are performed farther along in the program.

Rachael Flatt reacted to the performance Saturday night that won her the U.S. ladies figure skating championship and a spot next month in the Vancouver Olympics. Photo by AP PHOTO

Rachael Flatt reacts Saturday after performing her free skate routine at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash. Flatt finished first in the competition. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) Photo by AP Photo/Elaine Thompson