Mirai Nagasu delighted the crowd — and herself — with a refreshing and entertaining show at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday night. Oh yeah, the 14-year-old became the second-youngest woman to win the U.S. title, too.

That other mighty mite, Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, ended up doing pretty well for herself.

When her scores flashed, Nagasu looked at the screen with curiosity. When she heard she’d won, she said, “What?” then clapped her hands to her face and broke into a grin.

“I am very excited and speechless for words,” Nagasu said.

Nagasu is too young to go to the world championships in March; skaters now must be 15 by the previous July 1, and she won’t even turn 15 until April. Rachael Flatt, who finished second, missed the cutoff by three weeks and will have to sit worlds out, too. Ashley Wagner finished third, and she is eligible for worlds.

Figure skating has been in the doldrums the last few years, searching for a new star ever since Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen decided to try new things. Well, Nagasu appears to fill that bill.

She’s a breath of fresh air, playing on her youth and size — she’s 4-foot-11 — instead of trying to be something she’s not. Skating to “Coppelia,” the story of a doll that comes to life, she was absolutely charming.

She fell on her opening jump, a double axel, but she very quickly regrouped.

“The fall on the double axel was like a kick in the butt,” she said. “After that, I was like, `Attack!”‘

She performed perfectly in character, stiffly holding her arms out to the side like a lifeless doll. As she was wound up, she jerked her arms and her torso, looking like a doll coming to life. When she bounced upward, the audience laughed.

Fully alive, she danced across the ice with light and airy footwork. She landed six triple jumps, three in combination, and showed great stamina by picking up speed as the program went along.

Perhaps most impressive is that this is the first time Nagasu has competed a 4-minute program. She spent the fall on the junior international circuit, where she only had to do a 3 1/2 -minute routine.