Briefs: Gilchrist ends big week with crown

Two titles in six days should give even more reason for Kaleigh Gilchrist to celebrate today.

The recent Newport Harbor High graduate capped her grand week by capturing the high school varsity women’s title in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. National Championships at Huntington Beach Pier Saturday.

On Monday she won the girls’ under-18 title at the Surfing America USA Championships at Lower Trestles in San Clemente. That victory also meant she won the Governor’s Cup.

Gilchrist is also a standout water polo player, as she earned a scholarship to play at USC.

— From staff reports

May-Treanor earns bronze

The beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Nicole Branagh won its first SWATCH FIVB World Tour medal as a team on Saturday as it took the bronze at the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam in Stavanger, Norway.

May-Treanor, the former Newport Harbor High standout and two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Branagh, ranked seventh in the tournament, took a 21-12, 16-21, 15-8 win in 49 minutes over 20th-seeded Lenka Hajeckova and Hana Klapalova of the Czech Republic in the first international beach volleyball meeting between the two teams.

May-Treanor and Branagh earned $23,000 for the third-place finish. The duo lost to Brazil’s top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca in Saturday’s semifinals, 21-19, 21-19 in 43 minutes. Juliana and Larissa went on to win the gold medal, defeating compatriots Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes, ranked third, 21-17, 21-17 in 43 minutes.

April Ross, also a former Newport Harbor star, and Jennifer Kessy finished ninth and lost their No. 1 ranking to Juliana and Larissa.

In the men’s bracket, Estancia High product Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena, ranked 16th, advanced to the quarterfinals, where they fell to Gavira and Herrera, 2-1 (23-21, 23-25, 15-10) in 1 hour, 3 minutes.

Fuerbringer reached the third round by upsetting Brazil’s seventh-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in the first round, 2-1 (22-20, 20-22, 15-12) in 1:04. Then they took out Latvia’s 25th-ranked Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins, 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-11) in 58 minutes in the second round.

The No. 14-ranked team of Jake Gibb (Costa Mesa) and Sean Rosenthal (Corona del Mar) lost in the first round to China’s fourth-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu.

— From staff reports