"Each time we've had an Olympic team-building experience, they always bring in a member of the 1980 hockey team to talk to us," Agosto, 27, said. "It's just so inspirational. It's really cool to be skating in this building."
Belbin and Agosto, who also were first in Friday night's compulsory dance, clearly were inspired. Their rapidly paced, Moldavian folk-dance routine, which concluded with a dramatic flip, ignited the afternoon crowd.
That was encouraging after a lackluster performance earlier this month in China.
"We were trying to get our energy level up, to get a better interaction with the audience," the 25-year-old Belbin said. "I felt like we were improved."
Their two-day score of 100.23 left them with an enormous lead heading into today's free-dance final. Russia's Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski were in second (86.47), and Italy's Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte (86.13) in third.
Kim Navarro and Philadelphia native Brent Bommentre, who also practice at the IceWorks Skating Complex in Aston, were in fifth place with a two-day total of 81.47.
Belbin and Agosto, five-time national champions, seem well-positioned to accomplish at the Vancouver Games in February what no American dance team has managed - win a gold medal.
"We've still got a long way to go," Agosto admitted, "but we feel like we're starting to make some good progress."
They were the silver medalists in Torino in 2006. Now, in an effort to take that final step up the medal podium, they have switched coaches.
They train with Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov at the Aston rink, which has become a focal point in the ice-dance world. The Russians also coach the current world champions, Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
Bommentre, 25, and Navarro, 28, skated to an original, percussion-heavy, Brazilian folk-dance routine that Swarthmore professor Jeannine Osayande helped them develop.
Another American with gold-medal ambitions, world champion Evan Lysacek, won his first Skate America title with a strong free skate. He hit seven triple jumps and finished with 237.72 points, nearly 29 more than runner-up Shawn Sawyer of Canada.
In the women's short program, South Korean sensation Kim Yu-na wowed the crowd. The 19-year-old's score of 76.28 was a short-program world record, breaking her own mark. She led American Rachel Flatt by nearly 20 points.
China's Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, three-time world champions coming off a two-year hiatus, won the pairs competition.
Contact staff writer Frank Fitzpatrick at 215-854-5068 or ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com.
