Day national champion

EUGENE, Ore. — Costa Mesa High product Sharon Day won the heptathlon at the USA Track & field Championships, while UC Irvine’s Charles Jock finished third in the men’s 800 meters Sunday at the University of Oregon.

Day, the Newport-Mesa and Orange County Girls’ Athlete of the Year as a 2002 graduate of Costa Mesa, entered the last event, the 800 meters, in second place. She finished in two minutes, 16.53 seconds to score 871 points and surpass then-leader Chantae McMillan, who clocked a time of 2:22.99, good for 783 points.

Day, who was second in the USA championships in 2009 and went on to finish 10th at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin that year, finished with 6,058 points, 28 better than Ryann Krais, who wound up 27 points ahead of McMillan.

Day began the second day of competition with a mark of 19 feet, 51/4 inches in the long jump (825 points). She then recorded a mark of 136-8 in the javelin (699 points).

On the first day of the event, she ran 13.85 in the 100 meter hurdles (1,000 points), and cleared 5-111/4 in the high jump (991 points).

Jock, who will be a senior at UCI in the fall, led the first 700 meters before settling for third place, the final qualifying berth for the IAAF World Championships.

His time of 1:44.67 is a school record, but not enough to top winner and four-time USA champion Nicholas Symmonds (1:44.17), or Khadevis Robinson (1:44.49).

Jock, who posted the fastest qualifying time (1:45.80) to earn the lane No. 4 assignment, had splits of 24.92 after 200 meters, 50.83 after 400 and 1:17.94 after 600.

“I’m still in shock,” Jock said after the race. “I looked up and saw that I got third and I was so emotional. It’s crazy. I’m so excited, I can’t even put the emotion into words.

“I felt in control and felt great today. I got my personal record and I’m happy with that. I made the team and I can’t be mad.”

Jock and Day will represent the United States in the IAAF World Championships, Aug. 27 through Sept. 4 in Daegu, South Korea.

— From staff reports