Sharon Day qualifies for Olympics in heptathlon

Former Cal Poly star Sharon Day qualified for the London Olympics today with a runner-up performance in the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Day, a 2008 Olympian in the women's high jump, finished the two-day, seven-event competition with a personal record 6,343 points, topping her previous PR by six points, set earlier this season in a meet at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.

Hyleas Fountain, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist in the heptathlon, won with 6,419 points. She had a 151-point lead over Day after Friday's first day of competition.

Chantae McMillan, third after Friday's first day, finished in that spot, too, scoring 6,188 points. Fountain, Day and McMillan also bettered the Olympic A qualifying standard of 6,150 points.

Day started today with a PR of 20 feet, one-half inch in the long jump, the third-best mark in the event. She also had the third-best javelin mark at 147-9, only six inches off her PR, and finished the final event, the 800 meters, in 2 minutes, 14.55 seconds, the fourth-best mark in the event.

While this will be Day's first time competing in the heptathlon in the Olympics, she did complete in the heptathlon at the 2009 and 2011 world championships. In 2009, she also qualified for the world championships in the high jump.

Joining Day at the Olympics will be another former Cal Poly star — Stephanie Brown Trafton. Brown Trafton, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the women's discus, won that event last Sunday to earn a trip to London.

Also making a return trip to the Olympics is men's water polo player Jeff Powers, a San Luis Obispo High graduate. Powers will be on his third Olympic team and helped lead the 2008 team to a surprising silver medal.

This story was originally published June 30, 2012 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Sharon Day qualifies for Olympics in heptathlon."