When Kansas University track and field coach Stanley Redwine was coaching at Tulsa, he had a mantra that he pounded in his athlete’s heads over and over — “The hungry dog hunts best.”

Kansas Relays meet director Tim Weaver, a former Tulsa trackster, has taken that saying with him, and he couldn’t help but think of it after seeing one of his catches for this year’s Relays struggle last weekend in her first outdoor meet of the year.

Marion Jones, who will compete in the 4X100 meter relay during the Relays’ Gold Zone on Saturday, finished a distant last in her first race since last year’s Olympics, struggling through the 400-meter dash in 55.03 seconds at the Mount San Antonio College Relays on Sunday in Walnut, Calif.

Jones wouldn’t speak to reporters after her run, and she and boyfriend Tim Montgomery quickly left the stadium after the race.

Now, Jones will look toward her first opportunity at redemption, Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Weaver, for one, is glad KU’s meet gives her the first chance to turn it around.

“The first reaction is one of disappointment,” Weaver said. “But I talked to some other people this morning, and she’s hungry now. She’s not happy whatsoever in her performance.

“It was early-season jitters that got the best of her. It’s going to be a positive for us, because she’s hungry.”

Jones, along with Olympic champion and Kansas City, Kan., native Maurice Greene, headlines the Relays’ Gold Zone, a three-hour window Saturday afternoon which will feature dozens of Olympic athletes and scores of top-flight athletes competing against each other. A five-time medalist at the 2000 Sydney Games, Jones is searching to once again find that swagger that made her one of the best female athletes in the world not too long ago.

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Sunday’s performance may have been a step backward. But Weaver is confident it will make her strive to take a bigger step forward.

“Hungry dog hunts best,” Weaver said, repeating Redwine’s mantra. “If Marion wasn’t real motivated before about coming here, she certainly will be now.”

Jones