Sports

Sunday, Jun. 28, 2009

Chelsea Johnson makes Team USA; Sharon Day qualifies in second event

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Chelsea Johnson lived, learned and now has some measure of redemption.

Johnson, a former Atascadero High star who set the NCAA women’s pole vault record at UCLA, was primed for a trip to the Beijing Olympics last year but had a sub par performance at the U.S. Olympic Trials and did not make the team.

On Sunday, Johnson did the next best thing, securing a spot on Team USA for the World Track and Field Championships by placing second in the women’s pole vault at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.

“This is definitely redemption to me,” Johnson said by phone Sunday. “I felt I should have made the team last year. I definitely learned from that day, and today, I was just mentally tough the whole time. And I’d say the game plan worked.”

Former Cal Poly standout Sharon Day qualified for the World Championships in a second event. The high jumper placed second in the heptathlon, beating the world standard by 77 points after setting a new personal record in the 800-meter dash.

Maggie Vessey, another former Mustang, was fourth in the individual women’s 800 and did not make the U.S. team. Mission Prep graduate Jordan Hasay won the 1,500 in the junior meet but has indicated that she might not continue to race this summer.

Johnson cleared 15 feet, 1 inch — the same height she cleared to set the NCAA women’s poly vault record in 2006 — for her best mark of the season. She was second behind Jennifer Stuczynski, who cleared 15-3. Stacy Dragila rounded out the three-woman team with a third-place finish after clearing 14-11.

After narrowly missing the 2004 Olympics and falling out of contention as the No. 2 seed at the 2008 Trials, Johnson was proud of this accomplishment

“I’d say it’s probably second in line,” Johnson said. “Obviously, you want to make the Olympic team. I didn’t make that. I had a bad day last year. This ranks pretty high up there. Making an Olympic team, making a world team. When I set the collegian record, that was pretty cool, too.”

After qualifying second in the high jump early on in the meet, Day came into Sunday in third place after four events of the heptathlon and still needed to clinch a qualifying score of 6,100 or better.

She had moved into second by the start of the final event, and got the score she needed after she finished first in the 800. Day’s time of 2 minutes, 13.54 seconds beat her old personal record by three seconds and gave her 6,177 points for the event.

In just her first full year of competing in the heptathlon, Day was second behind Diana Pickler (6,290). “It’s amazing,” Day said by phone. “It couldn’t have worked out any better to be able to high jump and get that out of the way and do the hep after.”

Both Johnson and Day will move on to the IAFF World Championships in Berlin, Germany, beginning August 15. Leading up to the event, Day will return to San Luis Obispo to train, while Johnson will compete in four European meets in a three-week span.

Vessey, who shocked the track world by winning the stacked 800 at the Prefontaine Classic earlier this month, placed fourth Sunday in 2:01.19. Hazel Clark won the event in 2:00.79. Geena Gall was second in 2:01.01, and Phoebe Wright nipped Vessey by .07 seconds for third.

Vessey not only would have had to place in the top three in the race to make the U.S. team, she would have also had to have done it in 2 minutes or less to satisfy the qualifying standard.

After bowing out of the senior meet in the prelim of the women’s 1,500, Hasay won the event for the third time in the junior meet, finishing in 4:18.99. Morgane Gay was second in 4:20.81, and Taylor Wallace was a distant third at 4:29.09.

“I didn’t really know how the race was going to go,” Hasay said by phone. “I pretty much expected I was going to lead the whole thing. We figured I should just try to win and not focus too much on time.”

Hasay is spending the next week in Eugene, where she’ll attend the University of Oregon and run cross country in the fall.

Leading up to the meet, Hasay told The Tribune this would be her last of the summer and reiterated that to the Oregonian on Saturday. On Sunday, Hasay said she would let her future coaches make the decision on whether to go to the Junior Panamerican Championships in Trinidad late next month.

“I’m going to meet with Oregon coaches tomorrow, and we’re going to talk about it,” Hasay said. “I’m going to kind of leave it up to them just to see what they think about it. Either I start my break now and get ready for cross country or go to Pan Ams.”

Also in the junior meet, Cal Poly’s Eric Surprenant was seventh in the 400 hurdles with a time of 52.80 seconds.

In the senior meet, San Luis Obispo resident Kara June placed 11th in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing in 10:12.28.