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GREENSBORO (AP) — No tricks or potions here. Just Mirai Nagasu being her usual enchanting self.

The 2008 champion edged fellow previous winners Alissa Czisny and Rachael Flatt in the short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Thursday night with a beguiling routine to "Witches of Eastwick."

But the margin between the three is so small — just a point — the title is still up for grabs in Saturday night's free skate.

Nagasu scored 63.35 points while Czisny, the 2009 champ, had 62.50 points. Flatt, the defending champion, scored 62.32. The Greensboro Coliseum's 9,300 seats were about two-thirds full.

Nagasu was fourth at the Vancouver Olympics, and her lyrical style, expressiveness and charming personality made many think she was on the verge of becoming figure skating's next big star. But the 17-year-old doesn't have quite the confidence in herself others do, and those doubts tend to come out at the most inopportune times. She led the world championships after the short program but came apart in the free skate and dropped to seventh. A stress fracture that kept her off the ice for two months this summer got her down and made for a rough start of the year.

As recently as Tuesday, her emotions were still so jumbled that coach Frank Carroll had to give her another lecture.

"I've been competing like a chicken all year," Nagasu said. "But I've been working my butt off. ... I hope I can show the judges I can represent the USA well."

Nagasu has the athletic tricks to stand up to any of the top women in the world. Her triple lutz-double toe loop combination was seamless, and she flew across the rink at such high speed she's lucky she didn't get pulled over. She punctuated the landing of her double Axel with a little hand flourish as if to say, "Go ahead, see if you can top this."

"I have to do the jumps anyway, so why not go ahead and land them?" Nagasu said.

And her spins were so tightly centered she would have drilled through the ice if she'd gone any longer.

But what sets Nagasu apart — as it does all the best skaters — is the show she puts on. Irrepressible and charming off the ice, she finds a way to carry that personality over to her programs. Skating to "Witches of Eastwick," she stayed in character throughout the entire program, giving an evil little grin at one point as she pantomimed making a wicked brew in a bubbling cauldron.

Unlike other skaters, whose programs would look the same whether they were skating to Beethoven or the Beastie Boys, her music is almost an extension of her. Or maybe she's an extension of it. Either way, no note goes unacknowledged. When her music went lower during one of her spins, so did she.

Czisny's program, to a piano concerto, showcased the feather soft quality of her skating. She landed her opening triple lutz-double toe loop combination with ease and certainty, and then breezed through the rest of her program.

"This whole Grand Prix season has given me more confidence to go out there and know I can do the job when I have to," Czisny said.

Flatt made a bold move after finishing last at the Grand Prix final last month, getting a new short program to "East of Eden." That's the same music as one of Michelle Kwan's signature programs.

The second half of the program is high-energy, and she skated with a speed she's never shown before.