For most freshmen, making the jump to the varsity track and field team would be a tall order.

Not for Canyon’s Tiffini Stone.

Jumping is what she does best.

“I just love the feeling of running and jumping through the air, and the rush that you get, and looking down and knowing if you went long,” she says.

Stone went long a lot last season as a freshman, winning Foothill League championships in the long jump and triple jump and finishing third in the long jump at the CIF-Southern Section Division II meet.

Now, she has a bigger goal: the CIF State Track and Field Championships.

Canyon jumps coach Ron White isn’t about to discourage such high expectations.

“Every year, and not just with her but all the athletes, I try to tell them to set goals for themselves,” White says. “For her, those are a little higher given the distances she’s jumped.”

Stone’s third-place jump at the CIF-SS Div. II meet measured 17 feet, 9 3/4 inches.

Earlier in the season, she set a school record in the long jump by leaping 18-1 at Birmingham.

Stone says she couldn’t believe it when the scorer first announced the distance.

“I was like, are you serious?” she laughs. “It was amazing.”

The sophomore admits she surprised herself in her first season at Canyon.

Born and raised in the Santa Clarita Valley, Stone has taken part in track and field since she was six years old.

She trained with the Santa Clarita Valley Athletic Association Running Warriors youth program. It was there that she first meet White, who says he’s coached her for close to 10 years between the Warriors and now Canyon High School.

He also says it’s no secret why Stone has been so successful.

“She’s a joy to coach,” White says. “She really does listen to what you have to say. She tries to do what you ask her to do even if it’s something she doesn’t want to do.”

White has worked with Stone on refining parts of her technique, such as raising her knees to get more elevation when she first takes off and getting a better extension on her landings.

Stone says her parents have been an inspiration, as have brothers Kevin and Kenny, who also runs track for Canyon.

When she was younger, Stone says she was aware of the success that Canyon’s track and field program was having, especially the girls, who won nine straight league titles from 1996-2004.

She saw the names on the banners in the Canyon High gym and dreamed of joining them.

“I always kind of knew what (the Cowboys) were doing, and when I was in the gym I always wanted my name to be up there,” she says.

Stone could very well end up with her name on a banner, and it could happen sooner rather than later.

She says she wants to reach 19 feet in the long jump this season while consistently landing in the 17s, which she believes will help her work up to her best jumps as the season progresses.

Canyon track and field head coach Paul Broneer, however, wants to make sure she doesn’t get ahead of herself.

“She gets down on herself if she doesn’t exceed what she thinks she can do,” he says. “I told her, ‘You’re not going to jump 18, 19 feet your first week.’”

Stone has her own way of dealing with the result of each jump, whether good or bad.

“You’ve got to think about the next jump,” she says. “You’ve got to put it behind you. Even if it’s your last jump, you have to realize you have another meet and you have to train harder.”

It’s that kind of attitude that has Broneer predicting Stone will reach 19 feet in the long jump this season and 37 feet in the triple jump, after a personal best of 34-0 1/4 last season.

He also says that the Cowboys will use Stone in a couple of relay races to take advantage of her overall athleticism.

Broneer coaches Stone on the girls basketball team, which he feels is the perfect sport to help a jumper in the offseason.

Now that track is back in season, Stone has her sights set on the state meet, and she also wants to help Canyon end the Saugus girls’ four-year run atop the Foothill League.

She believes her team is ready to make the jump.

Stone certainly is.

“I have goals that I set for myself that I want to get, personal bests,” she says. “I have very high expectations.”