EHS graduate Chancey Summers was chosen to compete in last weeks Olympic Trials

Just more than 12 months ago, Chancey Summers was racing against the top 4A high school athletes in Oregon.

Last Thursday, she was up against the best professional and collegiate athletes in the nation.

While the venue, Hayward Field, was the same for both the high school state championships a year ago and the U.S. Olympic Trials last week, it's safe to say the setting was just a bit different.

Summers, a 2011 graduate of Estacada High School and a four-time high jump state champion (she also added long jump and triple jump titles her senior year), competed as a freshman for the University of Oregon this year.

While touted as one of the top high jumpers entering the collegiate ranks this year, few could have imagined how quickly she would improve.

Her shining moment came at the Oregon Relays at the end of April as she cleared 6 feet, a new personal best and the fourth-best mark in school history. It also happened to be the 11th best mark in division I this season.

While Summers' season slumped from that point as she struggled down the stretch, her career got another kick-start last week when she learned she was eligible to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

"I wasn't even supposed to qualify," she said. "They lowered the standard because there weren't enough jumpers.

"I found out 48 hours beforehand that I was for sure able to compete, so I drove down on Tuesday and was staying in a hotel."

While surprised at her entry into the prestigious competition, Summers had little time to internalize exactly what was happening since the preliminaries were Thursday afternoon.

"Thursday morning I woke up around 8, got breakfast and went to practice," she said non-chalantly. "I did a brief shake out, grabbed some lunch, and then my coach picked me up around 2 to head to the track.

"Walking in was crazy - there were so many people there, and by the time we finally got back to the tent to check in, I didn't have much waiting time."

After a pre-race meeting with officials and the other competitors, Summers was escorted onto the track around 4 p.m. in front of a record crowd of 22,602 people - all rooting for the local girl.

With her marks down and warmups complete, the competition began at 5 p.m. at a height of 5-feet-10.

"That was pretty high, higher than I usually start," she said. "I have been struggling to get over 5-10 and it was definitely a challenge, but I wasn't afraid. I had no expectations going in; my goals were simply to clear some heights and hopefully jump 6 feet again."

With 24 women in the competition, they were split into two pits with the understanding that as soon as they were down to 12 competitors, preliminaries would be over.

Summers had three jumps at each height, but it just wasn't her day.

"My first jump was not very pretty," she said. "I was a little nervous. Going through warmups I was fine, but I was nervous for my first jump.

"My second two were much better, and I was really close on my third."

Just before that third jump, however, she had to make good on a promise she had made to her coach - she would get the crowd involved.

"He told me that if I got to the third attempt that I needed to get the crowd clapping," she said. (In track, it's a common practice for local runners to get the entire crowd clapping in unison and slowly speeding up as the jumper approaches the bar.)

But as she said, it wasn't meant to be.

Her trials experience was over without clearing the bar. Looking back, though, Summers had no regrets.

"Just being out there in the same pit with people like Chantae Lowe, the U.S. record holder, was a great experience," she said. "My time at Oregon had definitely prepared me for the crowd, too, because we're spoiled with really good fans that come to all of our events.

"Usually I can handle my nerves pretty well, but this was pretty nerve racking."

Among the supporters on hand for Summers was her high school track coach, Jon Erickson, to whom she had foretold of this experience.

"This was a dream since I was a freshman in high school," she said. "When I was a freshman I told (Erickson) I'd be here someday."

In the end, the good news for Summers is that 2012 is just the beginning of what looks to be a promising track career. For someone her age and experience, the real emphasis and focus is on the 2016 Olympics, so her presence in Eugene this past week was merely for experience.

"Just competing at the trials will help me with the initial shock because it was so nerve racking just to warm up and get ready because I had never competed before a crowd that big, let alone in a field of jumpers like that," she said. "Making the trials this year wasn't even one of my goals. I was focusing on the next four years for 2016."