A silver medal Day

Sharon Day, a former Costa Mesa High standout, finished second in the heptatlon at the USA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. Sunday.

She produced a personal best score of 6,177 points and quailfied for the IAAF World Championships, Aug. 15-23 in Berlin, Germany. She has also qualified for the world championships in the high jump after finishing third Thursday.

Going into the final event, the 200 meters, Day needed to run 2 minutes, 19.10 seconds or faster to hit the ‘A’ standard of 6,100 points to guarantee her a place on the world championship team.

Day was in second place at the halfway mark and broke away from the pack of 14 athletes with 300 meters to go en route to running a new personal best 2:13.54, almost two seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

Diana Pickler won the heptathlon.

Evans on Team USA

Brad Evans, a former UC Irvine All-American, has been named to the U.S. men’s national soccer team that will compete in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup Friday through July 26.

Evans, a midfielder for the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer, is the first Anteater to make the top U.S. national team. He played previously on the U.S. Under-20 national team at the 2005 world youth championships in Holland.

“The selection of Brad Evans to the national team at this juncture is a tremendous accomplishment in his storied career and another milestone for the UCI men’s program,” Anteaters Coach George Kuntz said.

Evans has two goals and one assist for the 6-3-7 Sounders, for whom his minutes played this season rank second on the team.

This is Evans’ third season in the MLS. He helped the Columbus Crew win the MLS Cup last season.

Team USA will open Gold Cup play Saturday against Grenada at Qwest Field in Seattle. The Americans travel to Washington, D.C. to take on Honduras July 8, before concluding group play July 11 against Haiti in Foxboro, Mass.

Evans was the Big West Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2006 and 2005, after being named Big West Midfielder of the Year in 2004.

Newport takes fourth

The Newport Water Polo Foundation 18-and-under boys’ water polo team finished an impressive fourth at the U.S. Club Championships in Goleta Sunday.

Newport lost to the San Diego Shores, 8-7, in the bronze match.

“We were playing with our high school team,” said Coach Jason Lynch, who runs the Newport Harbor High program. “The rest were mostly club teams, all-star teams, and they had players going into their freshmen year in college.

“We were seeded 12th out of 16 teams. We’re excited with the finish.”

Matt Russell, an incoming senior at Newport Harbor, was named to the all-tournament team.

SOCAL won the three-day event, beating Lamorinda, 11-9, in the championship.

Playing for Newport were Newport Harbor upcoming seniors Jack Yeager, Zach Lucas, Blake Kelly, Dane Sequeira and goalie Ikaika Sarme, and incoming junior Chris Whitelegg.

Next for Newport is the Commerce International tournament in Commerce on July 10-12.

Newport’s 16-and-under team finished seventh.

— From staff reports