Hannah Jones expected another season of chasing teammate Chloe Albright.

But, when an ankle injury sidelined Albright for the season, Jones not only became the best hurdler for the juggernaut that is the Lewisburg girls track and field team -- she became the top hurdler in the Valley.

And, to the dismay of Lewisburg's opponents, Jones is a sophomore.

Jones has the area's best time in both the 100-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles at 15.89 and 45.83 seconds, respectively. She is the No. 2 seed in both events, behind Montoursville standout Tesa McKibben, for Saturday's District 4 Class AA meet.

Jones, daughter of former Lewisburg runner Heidi Ziegler and brother of current Dragons' distance runner Peter Jones, has come a long way since her introduction to the hurdles as an eighth-grader.

"We had a unit in track and field and I tried the hurdles and thought they were really fun, so I ended up sticking with them last year," she said.

But they were also scary.

"I remember us standing around with a bunch of girls just being really scared to run up to them and we were all like you go first, no you go first.' Eventually, I went over them and loved it," she said.

When Albright went down before the season started, Jones knew that more pressure would be put on her to win races and score points for the team.

"I did feel like I had to fill that gap, but my coach told me not to try to make results and just focus on my races and do my best," she said. "So that's what I've been doing and it's been working out pretty well. I'm pretty happy with my results this year."

Albright is happy for her, too.

"I knew she had it in her all the time. She was always on my heels last year, but I think this year, she just needed to step up and she's doing a great job in the hurdles, and her times are good," Albright said. "I'm really proud of her."

Jones said, "She definitely taught me a lot last year as a freshman, a lot of what I know about hurdling."

Lewisburg coach Jonathan Clark couldn't be happier with how things worked out, unless by some miracle, Albright had been able to return and join Jones in the hurdles races.

"Chloe was so good last year and Hannah's improvement last year was kind of hidden. But if you paid close attention to what she was doing through the course of the year, she pushed Chloe in both events," Clark said.