The Chandler Rotary Invitational brings in some of the nation's best track athletes.

Toeing the line next to a national elite can both inspiring and overwhelming. Some are ready for that challenge and others need a minute (or a year of maturity) to be ready to compete at that level.

Two of Saturday's top competitors — Desert Vista (Phoenix) distance runner Dani Jones and North Canyon (Phoenix) senior Jasmine Stauffacher-Gray — admitted when they were freshmen they were rattled by the idea of competing on such a stage.

"My freshman year I had a panic attack and walked off the track. My sophomore year I ran poorly," Stauffacher-Gray said. "Then I set the meet record. Lots of stuff happens here.

"I had never been to a big meet before. It was a lot and it overwhelmed me."

Now she is overwhelming the field as she won the 400 in 55.70 seconds.

It is pretty clear that track is one of the sports that really tests the mental portion of the athlete's strengths.

"When you think about the mental piece, we try to eliminate any limits," Desert Vista distance coach Jeff Messer said. "Society, sometimes peers, professionals around us can impose limits. If you refuse to accept them, don't accept them, don't acknowledge them and realize what you do on the last lap is only constrained if you constrain it."

Back in the eighth grade Jones ran her first 300 meter lap at the track at Austin Field on Chandler High's campus. It's also the same place the Chandler Rotary is held.

A year after her running career began she was in a field of accomplished long distance runners and she let it get to her and her performance.

Five years after first starting, Jones is the one everyone is trying to catch as she puts the finishing touches on one of the best careers for a distance runner Arizona has ever seen.

It continued on Saturday night back at Austin Field at the 75th annual Chandler Rotary, an event at which she hasn't had much success because of various reasons.

Jones shed any bad vibes she had associated with the Rotary as she set the state record in winning the star-studded field in the 1600 with a time of 4:44.46 and followed it up by winning the 800 later in the evening with a time of 2:11.42.

"Winning this race on this track is exhilarating," said Jones, who is headed to Colorado on scholarship in the fall.

Jones said as a freshman she was overcome with nerves at this event, an anemic episode kept her from being her best as a sophomore and she missed it completely as a junior with a stress fracture.

Much like her fellow competitors it is all behind her now after Jones won the 1600 against what might be the strongest field the event will see all year long nationally, as three other Gatorade Cross Country runners of the year for their state competed.

It didn't really matter after Jones, who was in sixth place after the first lap, decided to put some distance between her and the other girls.

The same ones — Air Academy's (US Air Force Academy, Colo.) Katie Rainsberger, Bigfork's Makena Morley and Herriman's (West Herriman, Utah) Lucy Biles — Jones once looked up to and hoped to be as good as some day.

"I thought a 500 (meter kick), pass on the straightaway would be a great strategy," Jones said. "I didn't know who was behind me so I thought it was great that I knew that because I was pushing myself the last 400 (meters)."
 
Jason P. Skoda, a former Arizona Republic and current Prep Sports Director for 1013 Communications, is a 20-year sports writing veteran. Contact him at jskoda1024@aol.com.