This Sophomore Is in a Class by Herself : Prep track: Oxnard Rio Mesa sprinter Marion Jones aims for the Olympics, but she hasn’t decided which country she will represent.

Marion Jones, 15 years old and perhaps the country’s best prep girls’ sprinter--ever--walks across campus at Rio Mesa High, apparently no different from any other sophomore.

Dressed in an oversized sweat shirt, jeans and sneakers, she looks so typical. But in her case, appearances are deceiving.

To those who follow high school track and field, Jones is anything but average. When she steps onto a running track, Jones moves into a class by herself.

In two seasons, she has taken the sprinting world by storm and gone from a local youth-league runner to an Olympic hopeful. Track experts everywhere are amazed at her rapid development and have labeled her America’s next Florence Griffith Joyner.

The 5-foot-10 Jones is a heavy favorite to repeat as champion in the 100 and 200 meters at the State meet beginning Friday at Cerritos College.

“She is one of the best runners I’ve ever seen, period,” said Bob Kersee, the UCLA women’s track coach who has been associated with many of the world’s best sprinters. “She is head and shoulders above everybody else in the United States.”

Even though she will not turn 16 until October, Jones’ accomplishments are staggering. She has been a weekly record show this spring, having broken 10 national prep, age-group and Southern Section records.

Since winning the national high school indoor 200-meter championship in March, Jones has recorded the fastest outdoor prep marks in the nation at 100, 200 and 400 meters. Her personal-best times of 11.28 seconds and 22.87 at 100 and 200 meters are national records in high school competition.

Her times are so good that as of May 21, she ranked fourth nationally--among female runners at all levels--in the 100 and 200 meters. She figures to be a strong contender to make the United States national team June 13-15 at the USA/Mobil Outdoor Championships--The Athletics Congress’ national championship meet--in New York.

“Marion has always been special, ever since she was a baby,” said her mother, Marion Toler. “She came into the world with a direction. There has never been any hesitation with her. She has always been aggressive and took charge from Day 1. Even though it may have been unorthodox to other people, I just redirected it in a different way.”

Toler enrolled her daughter in diverse youth programs, from ballet and gymnastics to soccer and Little League. Finally, Toler decided that even though Jones excelled in nearly everything she attempted, track and basketball would be her main sports.

“She really loved gymnastics, but she was getting injured, so I withdrew her,” Toler said. “Then in Little League, she was so good that she only could play with boys. I took her out of that when it became too competitive.

“So, I had a problem to get her into something to fill the void, and that is when she started in track.”

Jones’ track career began to take off in 1987 when she moved with her mother from Palmdale to Sherman Oaks. She started to run for the West Valley Eagles’ track team.

Winning came easily to Jones and she soon started to travel to other states for age-group meets, but there was cause for concern when it came time for Jones to go to high school. Toler wanted her daughter to have a balanced high school life--academics and athletics.

Toler, who divorced Marion’s father when Marion was an infant, decided to move to Oxnard after getting advice from neighbors who attended Rio Mesa.

The move turned out well for Jones, a B student, and Rio Mesa track Coach Brian FitzGerald, who coached Angela Burnham, who won five State sprint titles while at Rio Mesa and now competes at UCLA.

“It wasn’t a problem for me to move to Oxnard because we were moving into a bigger place, and I was getting a bigger room,” Jones said. “It may be slower here, but I like it.”

It did not take long for Jones to make her presence felt at Rio Mesa, where she has also starred in basketball--making first team All-Ventura County last season with a 25 points and 10 rebounds per game average.

Even before Jones began to dominate high school competition, though, she had watched Griffith Joyner run to four Olympic medals--three golds and one silver--in Seoul in 1988.

“I saw her performance as incredible,” Jones said. “But, at that time I was just making the transition from unorganized track, so I really didn’t know much about track then.”

If Jones had asked, at age 12, what were her chances of running in the next Olympics, people probably would have laughed. Now, that question not only is legitimate, but prompts another as well: What country might she be running for?

Jones has dual citizenship, in the United States and in her mother’s native country, Belize, on the eastern coast of Central America.

That could present a problem. If Jones does well enough in the TAC meet in New York, she will qualify to represent the United States at the Olympic Festival here in July, at the Pan American Games in Havana in August, and at the World Championships in Tokyo in late August and early September.

If Jones does represent the United States this summer, she will not be able to compete for another country for three years, according to international rules. And although she may be good enough to represent the United States this season, there is no guarantee she will make the U.S. Olympic team next year, whereas she would be almost certain to gain a spot running for Belize.

“She will have to make some tough choices this summer,” her coach, FitzGerald, said. “She could make the U.S. team on a relay or something, but decide to wait and run for Belize.”

Her mother said: “Whatever we decide, it’s going to be based on what is best for Marion. If she (runs) for the U.S., she would get a lot of publicity and promotion. The positives are enormous. But then if she doesn’t get to the Olympics, she would have to wait her turn.

“If she runs for Belize, it would be a big deal there and that would be an investment in the country. In the long run she could be anything for that country.”

For Jones, the only concern now is to run fast and let everything else fall in place. It is easy to forget that she is a teen-ager who has never been on a real date and whose biggest worry is how well her favorite team, the Lakers, and player, Byron Scott, are doing.

To her friends, Jones is the same person who enrolled at Rio Mesa two years ago, the same friendly, joke-telling person who is so good a runner that she has to practice with the boys.

People who know her are not surprised that she has done so well. But what has the track experts so excited is Jones’ versatility.

At the Southern Section 3-A Division finals at Cerritos College two weeks ago, she became the first sprinter to win the 100, 200 and 400 meters in a divisional meet. She also set Southern Section records in each event.

“I am not amazed at what she does anymore,” said Alycia Burnham, Angela’s sister and a teammate of Jones’. “I know to expect something great from Marion all the time.”

Also mentioned frequently is Jones’ toughness.

In last year’s State meet, she suffered a stress fracture in her left foot during a preliminary race. She didn’t let it bother her in the finals, even though the injury was serious enough to keep her out of the entire summer season.

So, is Jones a just a natural or is she a product of hard work?

“I think that it is a combination of both,” she said. “I know that I have to work hard because there are a lot of talented people who never reach their goals because they didn’t work. It is what sets apart a great one from a good one.”