Day heads to Olympic trials

Nearly two weeks ago, Sharon Day missed her graduation ceremony. She was OK with that, though, because she can soon qualify for another ceremony – at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Day finished her Cal Poly career June 13 by placing second in the women’s high jump at the national collegiate outdoor track and field championships in Des Moines, Iowa – parts of which were being overwhelmed by flooding.

A day later, she couldn’t make it home in time for her formal graduation.

“It was kind of crazy because there were all these things happening in all of their separate little worlds,” Day said. “There was flooding and natural disaster over there, a national track meet over here. Our hotel was actually on a huge hill above the river, where you could see everything; we were just waiting for something to happen, but it didn’t really affect the meet. All this stuff was going on, but we weren’t really a part of it.”

She will, however, be a part of the Olympic trials, which begin Friday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Women’s high jump prelims will begin at 7:15 p.m. Monday.

“I’ve been trying to think of it as just another U.S. championship, and trying not to think of it so much as the Olympic trials,” Day said. “But it’s hard not to let the magnitude of this meet get in the way.”

The seven-time All-American from Costa Mesa met the Olympic “A” qualifying standard May 17 at Cal State Northridge with a personal-best clearance of 6 feet, 4 _ inches – the country’s best collegiate mark this season and 3 « inches higher than her leap at the national meet.

Needing a top-three finish at the trials to make the U.S. squad, Day enters the competition seeded fourth (with a 1.95-meter seed mark) – behind Nike’s Chaunte Howard (1.98), Destinee Hooker (1.96) and ASICS teammate Amy Acuff (also 1.95).

“I like my chances really well,” Day said. “Out of the four women who’ve jumped the standard, Chaunte and I have most recently done it. The other two haven’t done it as recently.”

Although Arizona sophomore Elizabeth Patterson edged Day (the 2005 collegiate outdoors national champion) at the national meet by needing one fewer attempt at 6-1 ¬, Patterson and all others who have not already met the Olympic “A” qualifying standard would need to do so at the trials in order to make the team.

In other words, if three standard-less jumpers placed first through third at the trials at heights beneath 6-4 _, and Day placed fourth, she would supersede them and make the team by virtue of already having achieved the standard during the applicable time span (the past 18 months). But if the three other jumpers to hold the standard were to place above her, she wouldn’t make the team.

“Hopefully, everything comes together like it has this year, and she’ll be rolling,” said Jack Hoyt, Cal Poly’s jumps coach. “Sharon seems to rise up a little higher when the pressure is on. I think she’s relieved she’s already made the (6-4 _) mark, and can just get in there and compete. She’s got a fantastic chance.”

Day, who has jumped at the track before (although it’s been upgraded for the trials), said she’s lightened her training in order to be “fresh and not so sore or run-down” at the meet, which will be held through July 6.

Women’s high jump finals will be held at 7:30 p.m. July 4.

In addition to Day, former Mustangs Jon Takahashi (in the men’s pole vault), Maggie Vessey (women’s 800), Kaylene Wagner (women’s high jump), Stephanie Brown-Trafton (women’s discus throw) and Ben Bruce (men’s steeplechase) have qualified for the trials.

Three others with Cal Poly ties – Ryan James and Aris Borjas (both in the men’s javelin throw), as well as Phillip Reid (men’s 1,500) – have provisionally qualified, but still could be left out of the field.

Brown-Trafton, a No. 2 seed with a mark of 217-1, finished 11th in Group A at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, at 192-1.

Wagner, a ninth seed, and Takahashi, a 10th, are the only other Mustangs seeded in the top 10 of their respective events.

Takahashi, Brown-Trafton and Vessey will compete in Friday’s prelims, Wagner in Monday’s and Bruce in July 3’s, when Reid would also compete if he qualifies.

If Borjas and James qualify, their prelims will be July 4.

“There aren’t that many opportunities to get there,” Hoyt said of the Olympics. “It’s really an elite group. To be able to say you were on an Olympic team is really special. It’s every athlete’s dream as a little kid.”

For Day, who saw her parents and had a graduation party the weekend before heading to the national championships, representing her country by becoming the ninth former Cal Poly track and field athlete to compete in the Olympics would more than make up for not being able to attend her graduation festivities.

“It would be incredible,” Day said. “It would be one thing to be part of a U.S. team in anything, but for me as a track-and-field athlete, the Olympics are kind of the biggest deal, so it would be a really special honor.”