During a warm-up in 1985, she collided with another skater, whose blade sliced Trenary's calf muscles and severed an artery in her left leg.

At the U.S. championships in 1987, she finished second in both the compulsory figures and short program, where she landed a triple flip jump for the first time in her combination.

Due to her strength in compulsory figures, Trenary again won the U.S. Championships in 1989, although she was defeated by Kristi Yamaguchi in the free skating.

[4] After she won her World title, her coach, Carlo Fassi, returned to live in his home country, Italy, and Trenary began working with Kathy Casey.

[1] Trenary's triple jumps included the toe loop, salchow, and flip, which was quite competitive for a female singles skater in the mid-to-late 1980s.

[6] With the elimination of compulsory figures—formerly Trenary's strength—from competition, the technical standard for jumping in women's skating had risen greatly, with the top skaters all attempting five or six different triples.

Prior to the 1993 World Championships, the eventual winner and soon-to-be Olympic champion, Oksana Baiul, cited Trenary as her favorite skater for her beauty and style.

Although Trenary's early professional competitive career was uneven, in 1996 she skated particularly strong programs, choreographed by her then-husband, Christopher Dean, to George Winston's "Variations on a Theme by Pachelbel", and to Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" as part of the U.S. team in its victory over the world team in Ice Wars.