ASHLAND — Emily Dunn had an impressive résumé when she showed up for her first track and field workout at Southern Oregon University in the fall of 2003.

The then-freshman was coming off a district 100-meter title at North Medford High and a fifth-place finish at the Class 4A state meet. She also had been a part of five district relay championships.

But when Raiders coach Mike Jones put Dunn through a series of sprints, he shook his head in disbelief.

"Her times were abysmal," Jones says. "She had put on some weight and hadn’t worked out over the summer. I thought she would quit."

What Jones didn’t know is that Dunn has a work ethic that would make a coal miner proud. And a stubborn streak to go with it.

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Two and a half years after that snail-like workout, Dunn is SOU’s top female sprinter and she’ll be among the favorites in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at today’s Cascade Conference meet at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham.

"I’m a competitive person and it’s not like me to give up on anything," says Dunn, a junior who blazed to a lifetime best of 12.33 seconds in the 100 at a meet in Ashland last Saturday. "I knew I had a lot of work to do (in college), but I’ve never been afraid of training."

Dunn’s workload extends beyond the track and the classroom, where she’s majoring in business and carrying a 3.58 grade point average. From 5 to 9 each weekday morning, you can find her at the J.C. Penny loading dock in Medford, removing clothes from trucks and placing them on racks in the store.

"It’s doable," Dunn says of juggling work, school and track. "I just try to manage my time. I try to do some homework throughout the day so I don’t have to do any at night."

As poorly as Dunn performed in that initial SOU workout, she was good enough the following spring to finish second in the 200 and fourth in the 100 at the conference meet. She was also a member of an SOU 4x100 relay team that took 12th at the NAIA national meet.

Dunn’s progress has continued. She clocked 12.56 and won the conference 100-meter title last year and took second in the 200 with a best of 25.98.

But it’s the past two weeks that truly has been Dunn’s coming-out party. She ran the 100 in 12.46 and the 200 in 25.75 — both personal records — at the Oregon Invitational on April 22, then re-shattered her PR in the 100 with a 12.33 in a meet against Oregon Tech last Saturday. The latter time is second-fastest in SOU history and has her within two-hundredths of a provisional qualifying time for the national meet.

"I think what’s going on right now is partly the result of how hard I worked out last summer," Dunn says. "I kept my fitness level higher than I ever have in the off-season. I went on a lot of 30- and 45-minute runs.

"When school started in the fall I felt as good as I did last spring. I was able to do the hills and longer conditioning work that we do without much problem. And I’ve just carried it through."

Dunn is now focusing on the technical aspects of sprinting. She’s worked with Raiders sprint coach Jeremy Senn to improve her starts, accelerate quickly and maintain her top-end speed throughout a race.

"I know I can run faster," says Dunn, who would like nothing better than to win both sprint races today and establish qualifying times for the national meet. "It’s exciting to know that all the work I’ve put in the past three years is finally paying off."

The work encompasses what Jones calls comprehensive training. It involves not only cardiovascular conditioning, but also weight training, flexibility work, healthy eating habits and being spiritual in some way.

"It’s a money-back guarantee for anybody and Emily has bought into it," Jones says. "She’s a credit to what can happen when someone really applies themselves."

Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail dhunt@mailtribune.com.