Day stays in hunt in heptathlon

BERLIN — Sharon Day, regarded by many as the greatest athlete from Costa Mesa High, earned the eighth spot after four events in the heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany Saturday.

Day’s highest finish came in the high jump. She cleared 1.89 meters (6.2 feet) to take second and earned 1,093 points.

She finished fourth in the shot put with a mark of 13.42 meters (44.04 feet), a personal best, and garnered 755 points.

She was eighth in the 200 meters, third in her heat, finishing in 25.15 seconds. She also came in 20th out of 29 competitors in the 100 hurdles, coming across at 13.90.

Overall, Day scored 3,714 points.

Jessica Ennis of Great Britain leads with 4,124 points.

Day will complete the heptathlon today, with the javelin, long jump and 800 events.

Results can be found at berlin.iaaf.org.

ROSS, KESSY REMAIN IN CONTENTION

SAN FRANCISCO — April Ross, a former Newport Harbor High standout, and her teammate Jen Kessy beat the “Mom Team” of Kerri Walsh and Rachel Wacholder for the second straight week to advance to the semifinals of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals San Francisco Open Saturday.

Walsh and Wacholder, playing in their second tournament back from each recently gave birth, couldn’t force a third set as they did in Hermosa Beach a week ago. This time, Ross and Kessy, the No. 2-seeded team, scored the victory, 21-14, 21-18, to move on today’s semifinals.

They opened with an easy 21-9, 21-12 win against Angela Lewis and Diane Pascua that took just 31 minutes. Ross and Kessy then battled against No. 7-seeded Brooke Hanson and Lisa Rutledge to earn a 21-16, 19-21, 15-12 victory before taking on the No. 3-seeded duo of Walsh and Wacholder.

Costa Mesa resident Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal of Corona del Mar are the only locals who remain in contention in the men’s tournament.

Gibb and Rosenthal, the 2009 Manhattan Beach Open champs seeded third, will play in today’s contender’s bracket finals, facing No. 6-seeded John Mayer and Jeff Ngyaard.

In the second round, Gibb and Rosenthal were victims of an upset that knocked them to the contender’s bracket. They lost to 14th-seeded Will Strickland and Aaron Wachtfogel, 14-21, 21-12, 15-11.

But Gibb and Rosenthal recovered with four straight wins in the contender’s bracket. Two of those featured eliminating teams with locals ties.

They began their run with a 21-11, 21-17 win over former UC Irvine player Russ Marchewka and Newport Beach resident Ty Tramblie, also a Newport Harbor product. Gibb and Rosenthal then beat Mike DiPierro and Adam Roberts, 21-13, 19-21, 15-12 and took out Billy Allen and Braidy Halverson, 16-21, 21-13, 15-5.

Gibb and Rosenthal moved on to the contender’s bracket with a victory against Corona del Mar resident Ty Loomis and Casey Patterson, the seven seeds, 21-17, 21-17.

Matt Fuerbringer, a former Estancia High standout, teamed up with a different partner in San Francisco. He usually plays with Casey Jennings, but competed in this tournament with Reid Priddy, who was a part of the U.S. men’s national team’s gold-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics.

Fuerbinger and Priddy, seeded 13th, reached the second round of the contender’s bracket, losing to No. 5-seeded Brad Keenan and Nick Lucena, 23-21, 21-16. Keenan is engaged to marry Ross.

Fuerbringer and Priddy opened the tournament with a 21-15, 21-15 win against Marchewka and Tramblie. But in the second round they couldn’t overcome No. 4-seeded Matt Olson and Kevin Wong, 21-18, 21-14.

In the first round of the contender’s bracket, Fuerbringer and Priddy bounced back with a 21-18, 21-16 win over Evan Engle and Mark Van Zwieten.

SAILORS FINISH FIFTH

KAUAI, Hawaii — The top-seeded Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball team finished fifth at the eighth annual Kauai Challenge Invitational Saturday.

The Sailors, who went 8-1 in the tournament, reached the quarterfinals after beating Maryknoll, 25-16, 25-22, late Friday night. Katey Thompson led the way with 10 kills.

Troy beat Newport Harbor in the quarterfinals Saturday morning, 25-20, 25-19. Thompson had 12 kills and two aces.

The Sailors bounced back with a 25-22, 25-15 win against Huntington Beach, 25-22, 25-15. Maddie Brown led with 10 kills, while Kirby Burnham added nine kills and Mackenzi Campbell 19 assists.

In the fifth-place match, Newport Harbor scored a 25-21, 25-11 win over La Reina of Thousand Oaks. Burnham had nine kills and five digs. Thompson finished with eight kills and three blocks.

BALDONI, U.S. TAKE THIRD

KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia — Former Corona del Mar High standout girls’ water polo goalie Kate Baldoni and the U.S. junior national women’s team won the bronze medal at the FINA Junior World Championships Saturday.

Baldoni, bound for Stanford, did not see action, and instead saw the Americans score an 11-8 victory against Hungary.

Baldoni backed up Sami Hill, who had 10 saves.

— From staff reports