The long and the short of this week's Division I girls state track meet had Desert Vista's Dani Jones and North Canyon's Jasmine Stauffacher-Gray looking for sweeps of their respective events. The duo collectively owned eight individual titles in distance, sprints and hurdles when the meet commenced on Wednesday. Those plans and the possibility haven't waned with Saturday's finals standing in their path.

Since emerging as individual champions early on in their careers (Stauffacher-Gray as a freshman and Jones as a sophomore), they've been nearly unbeatable. Sweeping their events Wednesday and Saturday at Mesa Community College is as good as it can get for them as they head to various colleges this fall -- each to a Pac-12 school.

Jones, a two-time state cross country champion (2013 and 2014), competes in the 800-meters, 1,600 and 3,200. Before lining up to run the 1,600 and 800 on Wedneday she was a four-time champ. Make it six-time champ as she has one final individual race left on Saturday -- the 3.200. Jones added her third straight triumph in the 1,600 and second victory in the 800 on Wednesday.

Jones hasn't swept the trio of distance events, denied in 2013 by Xavier's Sarah Fakler in the 3,200 and last year in the 800 by Highland's Lauren Ellsworth. This appears to be Jones' year to triple. She's at the top of her game and has set state records in the 1,600 (twice) and 3,200. She fell short of the state record in the 800 on Wednesday. That mark was set last year by the opponent that beat her in the event -- Highland's Lauren Ellsworth, who has missed the season due to a knee injury. Jones has a bright future ahead in college. She signed with Colorado in November.

Stauffacher-Gray has progressed nicely in her specialty -- the 400 meters. She's taken a backseat to noone in that event since her freshman campaign at North Canyon in 2012. Stauffacher-Gray has triumphed in the 400 all three years thus far with times of 56.34 seconds in 2012, 55.30 in 2013 and 54.12 last year. A push for a fourth title may come from Highland sophomore Alena Ellsworth (the sister of the aforementioned Lauren, and Chandler freshman Anna Foreman. Ellsworth posted faster prelims qualifying time than the defending champ

Stauffacher-Gray knows about being pushed. She won the other event she began to run last year -- the 300 hurdles -- by .008 of a second over Marana's Sydney Madrid to give her two titles in the same year and four overall. Stauffacher-Gray signed a letter of intent in track to UCLA last November.

As for girls team-title chase in D-I, Chandler High's girls are shooting for a 10th consecutive crown. They've come easily eight of the last nine times during that stretch, but last year Desert Vista gave the Lady Wolves a battle falling by 5 1/2 points. Desert Vista may have the wherewhithal to put pressure on this year as well. In fact, Desert Vista leads after Wednesday's competion over Chandler and a not-so-dark-horse Mountain Pointe. Desert Vista has 52 points, Mountain Pointe 36 and Chandler 18. That's through five events. Twelve more will be completed Saturday. Desert Vista's strength is in the disance events of which only the 3,200 and 3,200 relay remain. Chandler can score in most events and Mountain Pointe is best in the jump, sprints. and weights.